Williams/MTH Standard gauge 408/#9 Kit wiring.

[rrlineman]

Hi everyone. At the store I do repairs for, the owner gave me 3 early Williams/MTH (overstamped) standard gauge kits to put together for him. 1 is a 408 kit and 2 are #9 boxcabs. My problem is that the wiring diagram for the BILD-A-LOCO motors is gone. the previous oldtimer he gave them to to build sat on them for 2 yrs and did nothing. now I'm finishing the job. wiring the lights is easy. wiring the motors is not. there are no E-Units, so I have to wire them to run in 1 direction only. MTH is Useless as usual since I have yet to get a reply for the email I sent last week asking for the wiring scheme. So if any one knows how to wire up the above motors, I'd appreciate any help. there are 4 connections on 1 side and 1 connection on the top plate above the field.

I normally due just AF repairs, but the other repairmen in the store who do Lionel and MTH wouldn't touch them. I got ask because I do Flyer prewar and some Lionel prewar. Saw it as a challendge.

Thanks.

[wrmcclellan]

Hi RRL,

I am more familer with the modern Lionel Corp repros but here is a typical wiring diagram from Olsen's. You did not say if you are dealing with an e-unit or the lever style of reverse. 

http://www.olsenstoy.com/cd/b123/000200.pdf

If it is an e-unit you can try this:

Looking at the brush side of the motor and the 4 terminals above:

1. Top Left - inside it goes to center rail track power via the "circuit board" inside the frame (i.e. the spring contact on the roller/collector plate). Externally there will be one wire that provides power to the e-unit. This wire is the one that goes to one side of the drum fingers (typ the side towards brush plate side when the e-unit is installed in a Bild-a-Loco (BAL) motor - the first solder tab when looking right to left). You can tell this side as there is a jumper wire on the e-unit from the drum fingers to the solenoid hot wire (the solenoid gets common via its contact with the BAL frame and the lever that connects the other side of the solenoid to the frame when the e-unit lockout is disabled) which is on a rivet on the fiber board at the top of the e-unit solenoid. There is a second wire from this terminal that goes to power lights. On modern reproduction (which is basically Williams/MTH/Lionel) this is an orange wire and the wire to the lights is red.

2. Bottom Left - this wire goes to the opposite side drum fingers on the e-unit on the third of the solder tabs (right to left). For modern repro this is a blue wire.

3. Top Right - this wire goes to the center set of e-unit fingers mounted on the bottom of the e-unit (the horizontal set). On modern repro this is a yellow wire.

4. Bottom Right - this wire goes to the sane set of fingers as in #2 above (4th solder tab - right to left). On modern repro this is a green wire.

Here is another diagram for 400E etc., with an e-unit. This diagram shows items 2 and 3 reversed. It really does not matter.

http://www.olsenstoy.com/cd/b123/000219.pdf 

This wiring is very similar to PW Lionel e-unit wiring.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

Apologies if there are any errors in this. The new forum S/W only provides a 3-5 line text box for typing in responses and I did not feel like doing this off line in Word and pasting.

 

[rrlineman]

Thanks for replying Roy. But I stated there is no reversing unit. I should had said no reverseing unit of any kind. but I will look at the Olsen's link for wiring.

Mike

[wrmcclellan]

If there is no reversing unit of any sort - i.e. the paddle switch and associated wires to the four terminals - then just connect the top two terminals to each other and the bottom two to each other and see what direction it runs. If the wrong direction then try the left bottom-left top and right bottom-right top.

[rrlineman]

Thanks, I'll try that tonight when I get home from work.

[rrlineman]

Roy, your idea worked Great ! thanks a million !

Mike

[wrmcclellan]

Great! Thanks for letting us know!