You might want to dig up my rebuild thread about a TM800 in similar condition. A few things I found:

Plain DIY paint stripper (Nitromors in my case) will strip the bodyshell up perfectly. Wear gloves and do not use it on plastic parts as it will melt them. I wouldn't go anywhere near it if it wasn't so good at stripping paint from metal parts. After that, primer, paint the red parts, mask them and then paint the black before a coat of varnish.

I didn't try to take the wheels off, as I was worried about both quartering and getting the gears properly aligned. Instead I unbolted the rods, cylinders, reverser and motor parts before cleaning the chassis with WD40 and an old toothbrush. This removed all the gunge, after which I repainted the wheels by hand. The cylinders got the same strip and respray as the bodyshell.

The rods may be tarnished. Very fine wire wool will clean them without doing any damage, just make sure that no dust from this gets into the mechanism as it will short the electrics.

The motor on mine was ok after I cleaned the commutator with a track cleaning block, rinsed the dust and oil off, and cleaned the graphite dust from the brushes.

Couplers can be straightened with smooth-jawed pliers, and cleaned with WD40 and an old toothbrush to remove any rust and restore the blackened appearance.

I'm not sure whether the couplers should have centring springs or not? Mine did not have any.

Eckert Engineering (see ebay) also have some of the common spares, such as pickup sliders.

It does look as though there should be a centring spring on the TM800 couplers. I'll have to get some suitable material and make some for mine. They look to function in the same way as those on some modern locos.

Nice job!

It was in much better condition than mine to start with!

One word of advice, you may find that you wish you'd removed the buffers before painting. It will be difficult to paint the bufferbeams red without it hitting part of the buffers too. Plus on the original they were blackened metal rather than painted.

Nice paint job. Be sure to show it all finished.

You can see a before photo of mine there too. It had a lot of missing or damaged paint, the couplers were squashed and covered in rust. The entire loco was covered in dust and gunge and the mechanism was pretty much jammed solid with old grease. Even the coupling rods had some sort of tarnish on them, which thankfully came off relatively easily. The loco cost me around £10 on ebay.

It was worth every hour and every penny of the restoration to get it rumbling along with a lengthy train of Hobby wagons behind!

Annoyingly the same seller had an RSM800 in similar condition but I was outbid by a couple of pounds right at the end - I hope it got similar repair work. Had I bought it, there would have been a full strip and rebuild with digital conversion and 7207 pantographs to replace the mangled originals. Outwardly original but able to run on the latest layouts, like my TM800.

Hi Fred,

did you solve the short circuit issue?

Check that the connection to the left-hand motor brush isn't shorting against the bodyshell. Mine was taking off at full speed for no apparent reason (or just not stopping when I turned the power off), eventually traced it to this area. A bit of insulating tape over the soldered joint and it was fixed.

Hi Guys!

It´s like I told You, The machine needs new parts...I was trying to save something that can't be saved.

So I would like to make this one work based on new components.
Can somebody please give a few tips about what I need to make it digital and fully operational?

The correct reference to the parts would be lovely and usefull.

Thank You all in advance

Is it only when you put the housing back on ?
First check your Pickupshoe.
It should have a isolation plate and this is how it should be re-assembled.
1.) isolation plate
2.) contact plate for wire
3,) pick upshoe.
If your loco only shortens out when you put the housing back on, look at the brushholder plate and see if anything hangs out.

regards.,
John

One of the correct upgrades for this loco is a 60904 set (old number)
It has a 5 pole armature, armature or brush plate and some of the accessories.
ebay germany:

http://cgi.ebay.de/Maerk...14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A2136|293%3A1|294%3A50

Ask this seller if you can have the decoder with the 60904 set
http://cgi.ebay.de/ESU-5...14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A2136|293%3A1|294%3A50

I have bought quite a few sets from this buyer.
This seller has all the parts you need to convert your loco including longer screws to secure brush plate.
there are other sellers who offer ESU decoders (52610) and an 8 pinplug wire harness. (51950).
My suggestion is if you have more digital locos on hand or are looking of converting them, an ESU lokprogrammer would be handy.




http://cgi.ebay.de/Maerk...14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A2136|293%3A1|294%3A50

If you have luck with the first seller you could have the set and decoder from 1 buyer.

regards.,
John

Hi Matt, that's the point! I guess that is the main problem, it's too big to fit.
Than somebody told me about an ESU kit