Athearn SW1500 Install

[Espeelark]

Shell install attempt #2.
Okay, the back of the shell now drops all the way down, but, the front won't go all the way down and is doing and bit of a teeter-totter. I determined that the heat-shrinked, solder joints for the speaker wires is the issue. You can see that in this photo of the brown speaker wires running across the top of the speaker.


This one took some head-scratching to figure out.
I decided the wires had to come up a different way, so, the first thing I had to do was pry out the 6-pin wiring harness to allow me to remove the speaker and work on it. Then, I peeled the wires out from the slots in the side of the speaker. I then cut a new groove/slot in the corner. Like this:

[Espeelark]

All I can say is that there is hardly any space between the inside bottom of the shell and the top of either the SSS speaker or the LM-3S module!
You remember that ~0.2" clearance that I determined I had between the shell and the LM-3S? Some of that gets consumed by the double-sided tape used to mount the module. What's left will only tolerate the wires themselves. The last issue I had getting the shell to sit down flush was determined to be a heat-shrinked, solder joint for the common blue wire - it wouldn't fit between the shell and the LM-3S. Luckily I had enough extra length in the wires such that I could move them back behind the LM-3S, towards the cab, where there was enough of a gap for it to fit into.
When I do the next switcher, I will forego using heat shrink over the soldered connections because there simply isn't enough room for that extra thickness. I will probably trim the soldered leads close together and then coat it with liquid electrical tape.

[faithie999]

Don't tell Mr. Ring i did this (haha) but in an install with almost no room for the LM, i removed the plastic shell of the LM and wrapped the naked board with Kapton tape.  it will void the warranty but it will give you perhaps just the extra clearance you need. 

Ken

[Espeelark]

Nice one Ken!
I'll have to "break that one out" (see what I did there  ) on my next switcher install.