Help Hornby Class 58 DCC conversion

[81F]

I need help with fitting a DCC chip to my Class 58, 58001. Firstly I have seen the thread on here about doing this but the motor bogie is different.

So far I've unplugged the wire harness from the two motor connectors and the bogies and soldered the four spade connectors to the red, orange, grey and black leads of a decoder.

I then plugged the orange and grey spade connectors onto motor left and right and put the output from my select to the red and black wires. So far so Good the motor bogie ran beautifully under perfect control when off the rails. Put it on the rails and it moves in one direction even with the DCC power turned down.

Where am I going wrong!

[Fishmanoz]

Hi 81F, within the bounds of your description, you seem to have done a perfection conversion, spade connectors giving a similar result to installing a socket. Then you have proved your wiring correct by having it run off the rails.

I can think of two possibilities:

• you may be able to stop operation with the controller turned down by disabling DC Running in CV29 (subtract 4 from current value if above 4, else it’s already turned off)
• my only thought for running in one direction only is loaded related. This is an old loco so current draw from the motor is likely high and needed a 1 Amp decoder, not just an 8249. Running off rails will be in No load condition so current draw will be low compared to on the track.

Beyond that, you’ve got me.

[96RAF]

Another possibility given you are using a Select is Loco Zero has been selected at some time and the speed knob turned up, resulting in a stretched zero bit case that can affect operation of a regular decoder. This is set to default off in later firmware revisions but you can check by selecting loco 0, turning the speed knob to full and firmly back to off. Resetting a later Select will also cancel any loco zero affect.

[81F]

Many thanks Just tried it again on the elite (never been set to zero) and it hnappens again. Also at one point error came up

[Rog RJ]

It may still be worth resetting the Select. You have nothing to lose.

[96RAF]

Error suggests the loco has a short. I would stick the meter across those spade connects again just to be sure there is no direct path twixt motor and track.

[Going Spare]

58001 was the first of Hornby's class 58 models and was notorious for poor performance on DC due to its gear train and an underpowered motor. Could this be part of the problem? Later versions had an uprated motor and a less complex set of gears.

[81F]

Thanks everyone. Sadly the chip has now dies, uncontrolled output when placed on the track sleepy But I have found the problem and sorted it grinning.

The motor is held in by a plastic screw on bracket with two phosphor bronze connectors. I found out that the one on the left (when viewed with the coupling furthest away remains live. By carefully prizing up the hinged flap which traps the connectors in place I noticed that left one extends past the fixing screw which passes through a hole it. This makes contact with the live chassis.

Having removed the connector I snipped off the part that the screw passes through leaving just the one hole for the locating pip and reassembled. A bit fiddly but straight forward enough. I then salvaged the spade connectors, soldered them to the appropriate wires on a decoder and all works fine,

Just need to see how many wagons it will pull (or not) given the warning above.