LCRU E-Unit Help

The instructions look correct to me. However, because you've got two motors, when you wire the second motor the yellow wire should go to brush two and blue to brush one. The GG1 trucks are built identically so one motor has to run in the opposite direction of the other.  Those motors draw a lot of amps when running, be sure the e-unit can handle the amperage.  Even on a smooth rolling, well lubricated GG1, the engine can draw close to 4 amps which is usually the limit for some of these types of e-units. (VoE).  There's not much room inside a GG1 and it doesn't look like that e-unit is going to fit. Can it be installed vertically between the two motors?  You may want to get on the Lionel parts website, look for GG1's and observe how Lionel may have mounted the e-unit.

Steve

I would mount a brass L shaped bracket to the bottom of the heat sink and then mount to the frame between the motors.  That LCRU-2 should be able to handle 6 amps....

Marty

RideTheRails posted:

The instructions look correct to me. However, because you've got two motors, when you wire the second motor the yellow wire should go to brush two and blue to brush one. The GG1 trucks are built identically so one motor has to run in the opposite direction of the other.  Those motors draw a lot of amps when running, be sure the e-unit can handle the amperage.  Even on a smooth rolling, well lubricated GG1, the engine can draw close to 4 amps which is usually the limit for some of these types of e-units. (VoE).  There's not much room inside a GG1 and it doesn't look like that e-unit is going to fit. Can it be installed vertically between the two motors?  You may want to get on the Lionel parts website, look for GG1's and observe how Lionel may have mounted the e-unit.

Steve

Steve, I presume the green wire should go to the brass tabs sticking out of the motors.  In the third photo it's the brass tab visible between and to the right of the two blue cylindrical items ?  The black wire would go to  the frame ?   I want to run on live catenary, so should the red wire go to the solder lugs meant for that purpose ?

I found this wiring diagram, stored on my computer.  It's for a traditional mechanical E-unit.  Can someone help me with a diagram for substituting the LCRU unit ?

Dan Padova posted:

RideTheRails posted:

The instructions look correct to me. However, because you've got two motors, when you wire the second motor the yellow wire should go to brush two and blue to brush one. The GG1 trucks are built identically so one motor has to run in the opposite direction of the other.  Those motors draw a lot of amps when running, be sure the e-unit can handle the amperage.  Even on a smooth rolling, well lubricated GG1, the engine can draw close to 4 amps which is usually the limit for some of these types of e-units. (VoE).  There's not much room inside a GG1 and it doesn't look like that e-unit is going to fit. Can it be installed vertically between the two motors?  You may want to get on the Lionel parts website, look for GG1's and observe how Lionel may have mounted the e-unit.

Steve

Steve, I presume the green wire should go to the brass tabs sticking out of the motors.  In the third photo it's the brass tab visible between and to the right of the two blue cylindrical items ?  The black wire would go to  the frame ?   I want to run on live catenary, so should the red wire go to the solder lugs meant for that purpose ?

I looked closely at the pics, kind of hard to describe when everything has black wires attached.  Looks like it was wired to run in one direction.   The tabs that are attached to the screws are for ground and that's about the only thing that can remain.  The blue things are capacitors. One is attached to each brush, you've got a left brush and a right brush.  Solder the appropriate colored wires, yellow or blue to these brushes.  There is a center tab between the two brush tabs, that is where the green wire gets attached.  BTW, remove the black wires from the two brush tabs and the middle tab.

You can attach the red wire to the tabs for the overhead pants.  Some people will attach the red wire to both the roller pickups AND the pants, others will attached the red wire to one or the other but not both.  It's up to you, depends on how you plan to run the gg1.   Hope the pics help.

Steve

Steve, thank you very much.  I'll get on it tonight.

Well, it was all for naught.  There's no way the LCRU unit is going to fit in my GG1.  I was looking at the Dallee #400, 4 AMP E-unit.  It may fit.

Running this on over head wire will be a head ache.  The pans are used to pick up the TMCC signal so the shell is going to have to be isolated from the frame to get a signal.  You could try plastic washers and nylon screws.....

Marty

Dan Padova posted:

Well, it was all for naught.  There's no way the LCRU unit is going to fit in my GG1.  I was looking at the Dallee #400, 4 AMP E-unit.  It may fit.

The #400 will fit, but barely. Please see my note, above, about 4 Amps. In short, The two motors, together, draw close to 4 Amps and will heat up the E-unit. I used the #400 in one of my GG-1 MPC upgrades and would run it for about 5 to 10 minutes at a time.  The reason for the brief time is because I had a small layout and it got boring running stuff for extended periods. None the less the rectifier on the  #400 got hot. IIRC, I situated the #400 such that the board fit vertically between the motors and the rectifier was on top.  The rectifier pressed up against the shell and acted as sort of a heat sink.  Not intentional, just the way it all fit together. The shell never got hot to touch but did get very warm.  The paint was never damaged.  That was my experience. YMMV.

Steve

It's not hard to add a heatsink to the bridge if you have overheating issues, that might be the way to go.