Model Railroading > LED upgrade for Athearn SD70ACE

So I have a few Athearn SD70ACE's and as many of you know, I am very disappointed in Athearn's use of bulbs. I have 2 of the Athearn SD70ACE's in CSX and both have been demoted to trailing status as they had burned out bulbs. In both cases the bulbs lasted less then 30 minutes run time. I have been eyeing up the Ulrich Athearn SD70ACE LED upgrade kit as I had heard it made the install pretty quick. Ulrich ships a kit that does 75% of the work. The price was expensive to me which is why I held back but after installing one and seeing all the work they put into this upgrade kit, I feel the purchase is well worth it and I am ordering a 2nd for the other CSX SD70ACE. The install goes quite well and took much less time then I thought. One pointer, dab water with a small brush on all the bulbs including the ditch light casings and let sit for 15-20 minutes. After that, the junk Athearn bulbs and ditch light casings lift out with ease. Here is one shot after it was done. As usual, my camera exaggerated the lighting but they look perfect and I did wire the ditch lights up on F5 and F6 so ditch lights alternate when the horn is sounded per CSX protocol. Kit can be found here. Thanks Bruce

http://www.ulrichmodels.biz/servlet/the-Athearn-Upgrade-Center/Categories

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Thanks Bruce...................you convinced me as I just ordered one to try on one of my Athearn UP Heritage SD70ace's. Ive been thinking about this awhile because my Katy Heritage unit just looked wrong with the dim bulbs at the last Free-mo setup I operated at.

Dave Dane

I had similar issues on one of my ACE's and so I will,after seeing this, order up a set and give it a try. Thanks for the image Bruce.

Bob

Bruce,

Thanks for the tip on using water to soften the glue on the Athearn bulbs! I've just been forcing them out, I'll try water next time.

Thanks, Barry Draper

Bruce,

How delicate is the shell to take apart and are there any "gotchas" that we need to look out for? I have a bunch of these engines, but haven't had to take one apart yet.

This mod is high on my list of things to do though.

Thanks,
Brian

Your welcome Barry. The glue used at the Athearn factories appears to be some water based silicone gel. I puddle water over it for 15-30 minutes and it softens up. I also remove the excess with a small Exacto knife while it is soft as it will harden back up. Bruce

barrydraper Wrote:
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> Bruce,
>
> Thanks for the tip on using water to soften the
> glue on the Athearn bulbs! I've just been forcing
> them out, I'll try water next time.
>
> Thanks, Barry Draper

Hello Brian,

The ACE shell is actually ease to work with it. Just remove the couplers and the 2 screws underneath and raise the shell off. Then disconnect all the lighting wires only and lift shell from chassis completely. The LED kit from Ulrich comes with excellent instructions with pictures. Use water as I stated to remove old junk bulbs. Thanks Bruce

BrianK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bruce,
>
> How delicate is the shell to take apart and are
> there any "gotchas" that we need to look out for?
> I have a bunch of these engines, but haven't had
> to take one apart yet.
>
> This mod is high on my list of things to do
> though.
>
> Thanks,
> Brian