MTH F7

Opening the Rear Door - B-unit

To gain access to the settings for the electronics, the rear door of the model opens up. However, several people have reported having problems opening that door.

Rich Gajnak reports that the rear door is a very tight press fit with a magnet on top to hold it from falling out. On his B-unit, he was able to get a single edge razor blade between the door casting and the body from underneath. There is a fine separation line visible underneath. The coupler has to be removed to do this. The razor blade gave enough leverage to pop the door a little, and then be pulled off.

Opening the Rear Door - A-unit

As far as getting the A-unit's shell off, it's difficult. Three of the four screws stayed with the frame on his. Several times he spun the screws just to make sure they were out of the posts on the body. The photo, below, that Rich provided shows that there is a lot of frame material to which the shell is exposed for friction. There is very little wiggle room between the shell and frame. He spread the sides from the frame and stuck index cards to minimize anything hanging up along the sides. He had to pull the frame up by the trucks. The front comes up easier, but the whole assembly has to come out straight. Once it started to come up, he used a small screwdriver to leverage the frame out a little at a time, working one side against the other. The index cards also helped prevent any damage to the body while leveraging out the frame.

Rich recalled that it was slow work, spending about an hour just getting the A-unit's body off. Plus, the interior's dashboard broke away from the base (the glue failed), but it actually helped in getting the frame out. It was no problem gluing the dash back on once the interior was exposed. Once he had the body off, he was able to poke the rear door off. But, it took more pressure than he expected.

Rich states that it goes back together much easier than it comes apart. Before he put the rear doors back on, he scraped the paint off the inside edge of the doors so they would be easier to get off again, if needed. They were still a tight fit, but better.

As for the coupler bracket screws, he left his off, but they could be ground down a hair with a motor tool, if you want to have them seat fully.

Lights

For the dual-headlight models, Rich Gajnak provides the following information. These engines have bracketing to both lights on the cab interior casting. Note that both the SHS and MTH models are the same, except that the SHS models use lightbulbs and MTH's have LEDs. These models have the active headlight in the upper opening regardless of whether it is a single- or double-light version. Real-world F units have the MARS light (when so equipped) in the upper opening and the headlight in the door. For the MTH F units it was a matter of swapping plugs at the DCS/DCC PC board.