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All,

I have an Lionel MPC-era GP9 (8357 Pennsylvania) with a sticky e-unit.  Starts out able to go forward and backwards, then just sticks in one direction or the other.

While I could get the e-unit fixed/replaced, I was wondering about the possibility of putting the 8357 shell on top of a newer GP9 chassis and, effectively, getting a whole new engine.  It seems straightforward to put this on another MPC GP9, but I also was considering a mid-90s GP9 with two motors and electronic e-unit.  I know that the mounting bolts are different (front and back on MPC, 4 on the base for later).  Has anyone tried putting an MPC shell on a newer chassis?  Any tips or suggestions?

Appreciate your assistance and insights.

Cheers,

Ollie

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No have not tried swapping a shell. Have a GP9 from the early 90's with 2 truck mounted motors and electronic e unit. Have replaced that electronic e unit a couple of times. On similar engines have replaced electronic e units on those also. I usually just run them in one direction but they still just don't hold up. Maybe  pulling to many cars up and down grades . I don't know just don't have much luck with them.

Two significantly diverging paths there.  Least expensive is probably to learn how to service the e unit. (Not one of my skills. )  Second is install an aftermarket e unit like a dallee.   Simple job, reliable product.   If you just like the looks and don't mind a hybrid,  put the shell on a wbb chassis, but you may want to rewire the motors first to slow it down.   In my experience these are a direct fit.

I've put older MPC and LTI Geep shells on at least five (I think) newer chassis. I use command control, though, so all the swaps I've done were using the chassis of newer TMCC/RailSounds-equipped engines. It's quite easy, and it would be just as easy if you were using a newer non-command chassis.

There are a couple of different shell to chassis mounting systems Lionel used over the years, but those can be adapted without any major issues. Without taking time to go into all the details, suffice it to say the adaptions necessary are pretty obvious, and not very difficult to accomplish.

The only type of adaption that takes a little more time is mating a chassis that uses a 4 screw attachment system to a shell with the old front and rear screw attachment. That may require gluing 4 small blocks of plastic or wood to the shell and threading the 4 screws into those, but that's not a big deal. Or epoxy small L shaped brackets to the front and rear of the chassis inside the shell, after drilling a hole through them, and put a screw through the front and rear of the shell into the bracket, which mimics the older mounting system on those types of shells. Whatever combination you find, it's not hard to figure out how to mount the shell to the chassis.

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