I had my K-27 locomotive apart for an ‘upgrade’, so I decided I would take a few
photos and put together a tutorial for installing a Tsunami sound decoder in the
first release K-27 (Outboard Cylinder).
The first item on my list was to replace the original speaker. I replaced it with
a Soundtraxx 1 ½” round speaker (#810055). The speaker is mounted to the tender
floor with double-sided foam tape around the edge of the speaker. I soldered on
the two pin micro connectors from Miniatroncs (#50-001-02). I prefer the connector
to be inside the tender as opposed to being between the tender and engine, so I
drilled a hole in the tender floor for the matching connector to come into the tender.
Next I soldered in a short length of wire from the small ‘board’ behind the gearbox
to the tab for the drawbar. Incidentally, this small ‘board’ is where I soldered
the red and black track power leads for the Tsunami decoder. The tender pick-up
should help the locomotive maintain better electrical contact. As always, be sure
to verify the tender pick-up is on the left side before making a permanent connection.
I now had to remove the original speaker connection that I installed when I originally
installed the decoder. This connector only reached to where the drawbar is and was
a source of problems due to its stiffness. The ‘new’ one is long enough to reach
into the tender and is routed thru the bracket that held the original 8 pin wiring
harness.
The wires are now tucked back into place and held down by brass wire lugs just behind
the motor. The blue and white wires are the connection for the headlight and cab
light. Here I’m using the original connector that came with the locomotive.
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