Bob I'm jumping in at the end of this conversation but wouldn't it be easier just spend like $ 25 - $ 35 and get a electronic E-unit for DC motors like they use in some of the 70-80 engines and install that? ( not sure what all has been said up to now but know he wants to install a E unit and lionel electronic E units are not that expensive) where for some reason to what I have seen Williams by bauchmann are about double. As you said that would be noisey as the ones prior to 1969 where. just an idea.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
I think the difficulty is about the same either way; and he's already got the e-unit and the rectifier. Noise matters only if he disconnects the coil and wires it upstream of the rectifier. The only reason to do that would be to make it easier to use the original on-off switch. If that were a requirement, then I would recommend the third alternative that I posted above, of adding a small bridge rectifier for the coil alone.
I see it as a disadvantage of the electronic e-units that they can't remember what state they're in for very long and will reset. It annoys me when two locomotives in a double-header get out of sync because one of them just timed out and the other didn't quite.
I'll stick with my original recommendation--to install the electromechanical e-unit downstream of the rectifier that he has and to replace the original on-off switch with a miniature slide switch.
Bob Nelson
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