Athearn SW1500 Install

[Espeelark]

Well, here goes nothing!
I took the shell off of my recently acquired Athearn Southern Pacific, DCC-Ready, SW1500. I plan to do a hard install.
So the first thing I did was remove the factory adapter board and test fit a loose LM-3S module inside to see if I could get the shell back on. No dice!
The inside width of the shell is OK until you get to the four fingers of the removable exhaust hatch. These reduce the inside width such that the LM-3S module can't go all the way up into the shell. Look at what the yellow arrows are pointing to in this photo:


I plan to remove those four fingers on either side and glue the removable exhaust hatch into place. That should give me the width needed.

Anyone else do an install into one of these? If so, any tips? Tricks?

I'll update this post as I proceed (may take some time).

[Espeelark]

That worked. I glued the exhaust hatch into place and then used a rotary tool on slow speed to grind off those fingers/tabs.


Here's how I plan to place the LM-3S.


Then I got to thinking about how could I determine the clearance between the top surface of the LM-3S and the underside of the shell. First I drilled through holes into the bottom of each of the exhaust stacks. Figured this would help (marginally) with cooling as well. Then I paced the shell onto the chassis with the LM-3S sitting on top of the motor and inserted a toothpick into one of the exhaust stacks and marked the side of the toothpick.


Now, taking off the shell and holding the toothpick at the same location, I measured ~0.2" of clearance. That should work for the wires that have to pass over the LM-3S.


I'm thinking this is all going to work out!