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I've got one of the Trainworld exclusive Long Island GP38-2s from MTH and the headlight seems to have gone out. I took the engine apart and everything seems in order so I'm guess the bulb went dead. It looks a little too complicated for me to do myself. 

I called MTH and spoke to a really rude customer service rep that told me it would cost $55 plus the cost of the part plus shipping both ways to replace the small LED bulb. 

Does anyone know a place where I can have it done a little cheaper where they wont roughhouse the engine and scratch it up while fixing it? Any suggestions welcome!

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Have you toggled the headlight button on the DCS remote? or tried a feature reset?

some models have the headlight picking up power thru springs. If the body shell was removed, these springs can loose power.

You could test by using 2 AA or AAA batteries (less than 3 volt DC) to see if the light still works by putting power to those springs going to the headlight.

I don't have the GP38-2 to look at. I will look up the instructions now.

Last edited by Engineer-Joe

Yep, the headlight gets power from springs making contact with a board on the engine floor. I thought maybe a spring wasn't making contact so I took it apart, but all seemed to be fine. When I put it back together the headlight still didn't work. I didn't test with batteries though, that's a good idea. 

I was under the impression when I looked at the headlight that it was glued in and would require soldering to replace. I could be mistaken on that. If it was simply switching a bulb I could easily do it myself. This is a proto-sound 3.0 geep, not sure if it's different from the 2.0 version. I think I tried pulling it out and it seemed stuck in there so I assumed it was glued. I could be wrong though, I just didn't want to break anything. 

Have you tested them yet, just to be sure? I have had to shim the spring assembly on a couple of engines to get better contact. I have changed all my PS2 headlights to LEDs, sometimes destroying the old bulbs to get them out. I push out the lenses and before installing the LEDs, and have them protrude slightly out of the housing. You get much brighter lights that way. You need flangleless 3mm or you have to file down a regular LED to do that.

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