Remove Kato F7 Body Shell and Athearn F59PHI Shell

[cholmes]

Does anyone know of a good article on how to remove the body shell from a Kato F7? Also one on how to remove the body shell from an Athearn F59PH1? Thank you!

Cary Holmes

[arbomambo]

A new KATO F7- the last 2-3 years of releases=is simply a matter of spreading the body shell over the fuel tank...the mechanism almost falls out.
For an older F7 release, it's a bit more complicated...one needs to use toothpics inserted between the mechanism and the body shell (with the porthole window inserts attached)...then carefully try to pull the mechanism out of the shell.
~Bruce

[peteski]

The toothpick method works on the new shell to and I use it because to me it seem safer than spreading the shell by hands, possibly breaking it or the delicate ladders in the process.

IIRC, the only difference between the old and new locking method is that the old F7 used 4 latches as where the new one only uses 2 (diagonally across).

[TiVoPrince]

F59PHi
is also a toothpick method shell removal...

[cholmes]

Thank you both for your suggestions.  Mine is an older F7 and I read somewhere that the front coupler must be removed first.  I'll try your methods as well.

Cary Holmes

[peteski]

Thank you both for your suggestions.  Mine is an older F7 and I read somewhere that the front coupler must be removed first.  I'll try your methods as well.

Cary Holmes

To be honest, I haven't taken my F7 apart for a while.  You right about the front coupler needing to be removed.  It is actually a bit of a pain to take it out through the opening in the pilot.  You first pop out the bottom retainer, then I think the flat centering spring needs to be removed.  Then you need to snake the coupler out through the hole in the pilot.

[trainforfun]

To be honest, I haven't taken my F7 apart for a while.  You right about the front coupler needing to be removed.  It is actually a bit of a pain to take it out through the opening in the pilot.  You first pop out the bottom retainer, then I think the flat centering spring needs to be removed.  Then you need to snake the coupler out through the hole in the pilot.

The fun part is putting back the KATO coupler . A lot easier at that point is to replace it with an MT coupler .