Does Kato sell the blue and white feeder wire connectors for Kato 20-041? If so is their part number or retailer that sells them?
I don't believe Kato sells the blue/white wire plug separately, but they sell a replacement red wire version which works exactly the same. Part number Kato 24-84TC.
Seems like I heard those are the same connectors used for batteries in RC race cars. If you have a local shop that sells those, you might take one of your Kato cords with you and try them for fit and function.
One of those (male or female - I forget which) works fine with Kato connectors, the other doesn't. Let the buyer beware.
That's right Norseman. It may have been you and I that discussed that and per your advice, I confirmed that no aftermarket Mini Tamiya connector quite fits on the Kato power pack or Kato turnout controllers. The aftermarket Mini Tamiyas do fit Kato's connectors on turnouts and track feeders.
Yep. Now that I think about it, that is how I recall it as well. My last modular shelf layout used Molex connectors for the main buss/harness. I crafted Molex to Kato male (shell) connector adapters to plug into the Kato Sound Boxes / Power Packs. I salvaged Kato white connector shells and crimped/installed the third party terminals to the white Kato shells. That allowed me to bump up the wire gauges and install the other ends of each wire to a Molex connector to mate with the buss. At the track connections, I was able to use the green third party connectors to mate with the Kato power feeds for the feeder tracks. That was the most robust power distribution design I ever used. It was actually fun to craft the long "around the room" buss harness with suitcase taps to feed the connections to the powered modules. Not a drop of solder in the entire thing. I did have to buy the proprietary Molex crimping tool (about $50 for a $10 tool...). Crazy over-designed and intended to provide decades of reliable service. But, alas, the layout was short lived and suffered it's premature demise after a bit over a year of service. Downsizing....
The aftermarket Mini Tamiya male plugs that I found will fit the power pack and turnout controllers if you take an emory board to the square peg of the male connector. The round peg fits fine. Takes around 5 minutes. YMMV.
Thanks -- that's it. I couldn't remember which pin wouldn't fit the power pack, but the square one it is.
I made one fit, but it took a lot more than five minutes. Maybe I did it wrong.... In the end, I just gave up and used some salvaged Kato shells with the crimp terminals that came with the green generic ones. That allowed me to bump up to a more reasonable wire gauge for the main feeders from the Kato power packs.
