Locomotive inside after the conversion:
Rebuilding Märklin DRG E04 17 from set 3100 to digital with Märklin mfx conversion set 60901
Updated 06.06.2013
This conversion method may also been used on Märklin 3049,
3449 and the E04 from set 3600. This means the older variants of the E04
and 104.
The conversion set 60901 is no longer available from Märklin. Today I
would have used the motor set 60941 and the mLD decoder set 60942.
Märklin 3100-1, DRG E04 17
Locomotive inside after the conversion:
Motor:
Installation of the motor itself is very simple. Remove the old motor
and make sure that all the rotating and moving parts are clean and work
perfectly. Install the new motor form the conversion set. Carefully
add one small drop of oil to each end of the rotor. To much oil will harm
the operation of the motor. Before inserting the brushes, check once more
that everything rotates and moves normally. Finally, insert the brushes.
Decoder:
The decoder is installed where the electro-mechanical
reversing unit used to be. The two noise suppressors are soldered to the
motor cover. One pin of a 28 Volt T1 bulb is soldered to the decoder's
orange plus, the other pin to the f1 output (used to be a red/brown wire) via a
1.5 kOhm resistor.
The red wire from the decoder is soldered directly to the pick-up shoe contact
plate.
Decoder functions:
f0 = light with directional change
f1 = interior light, engine room front
f2 = interior light, engine room rear
f4 = acceleration and braking delay off
Front and rear light:
This locomotive has been converted to digital before, so the lamp holders have
been drilled out to fit the insulated bulb holder 475030, for screw bulbs.
Later on, the new bulb holder 604180, for bulbs with two pins, became available.
The 604180 bulb holder fits directly into the original bulb "hole". I
glued them into the already installed 475030.
From behind:
I have cut the bottom off the black bulb holders to access the contact pins on
the new holder. It doesn't look nice, but it was the best solution after
the unfortunate drilling out of the original bulb holder.
Interior light:
I also wanted interior light. One 28 Volt lamp is soldered to the
decoder, another to the pantograph contact tongue. I will not use catenary
power on my layout, so I use the contact tongue for the orange plus to the bulb.
One lamp pin is soldered to the contact tongue, the other pin of the 28 Volt
bulb is connected to the brown/green wire from function 2, via a 1,5 kOhm
resistor.
Dividing wall:
To prevent the interior light from shining through the front windows in end "V",
I installed a dividing wall, made of thick black paper.
The photo also shows that the connection plate between the pantographs is
missing and
some of the "upholstery" I have glued inside the locomotive, to reduce noise.
Close coplers:
I installed close couplers on my DRG E04 17, from the Märklin 7205 coupler set,
which consists of 10 locomotive couplers and 40 wagon couplers. Just
remove the Relex coupler and clip in the new coupler.
The decoder functions:
| 3100 DRG E04 17 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60901 c91 | Front light | Interior light | Acc/ dec | |||
| funct. | dir. | End V | End H | End V | End H | |
| f0 | f. | 3 | ||||
| r. | 3 | |||||
| f1 | on | |||||
| f2 | on | |||||
| f4 | delay off | |||||