Looking at the pics from my post on 6/20, one of the little people became dislodged. It wasn't glued in as well as the other one, and I think the swing of the motor dislodged it. I figured 'No problem, I'll just open it up and glue it properly.', easy peasy. That wasn't the case. I spend an enormous amount of time getting it back to where it was. Problem 1 was all on me, the rest weren't directly my fault (IMHO).
1. Some of the soldering connections for the new LEDs were not solid, and in the ensuing work they came loose. I've become much more proficient in soldering, so I hope this problem will become much more infrequent.
2. The GP9 doesn't have that much room under the shell, so additional wiring, even the ultra slim Kynar wire suggested by @gunrunnerjohn can sometimes get in the way. I looked at options for wire management, and what I had was the best I could imagine. In order to tape the wires so they didn't get in the way, I just used standard electrical tape. That didn't hold very well and putting the shell back on wasn't a piece of cake. In another OGR thread about the shields falling off old aluminum passenger cars, someone suggested using double-sided 3M automotive tape. I bought some, only using one side, and it holds the wire very well.
3. To add the LEDs that were constantly on for the little people, I tapped into the track power wires. For the ground, I connected the wire to a soldering lug, and screwed it into the location that had 3 other lugs, all connected to the engine and circuit boards. While I carefully handled those wires and didn't put that much stress on them, the factory connections on the 3 lugs became loose and had intermittent connection. I rewired 1 connection and resoldered the other 2 and they're fine now.
4. Lastly, the horn wasn't working on my simple test track. I had my original 1950s KW transformer connected to it. After checking under the hood (so to speak) MANY times for loose connections, I looked at some OGR posts and realized the whistle component on the KW may be suspect. I put the GP9 on my larger oval track with a rebuilt ZW, and no problems. I have a new rectifier diode stud on order.
So, after about 3 days work, I'm back to where I was.
