If anyone has converted the older LifeLike SW9 to DCC how did you resolve separating the two chassis halves? The two fasteners that hold the chassis together appear to be designed to thwart disassembly in order to isolate the motor.
From what I remember the screw head has a cap like cover over it. Just remove that cover to reveal the screw head.
I’ve installed decoders in several of these both hardwired and the light board replacement type. I’m unsure what you are referring to about the fasteners that hold the frame halves together. There are round plastic spacers at the front and rear of the chassis that separate the halves. There is a plastic blind hex nut on one side recessed in the frame. A screw goes through the spacer and threads into the plastic blind nut. There are rounded plastic caps covering the Phillips screw heads. Use a pick or a hobby knife to pry them up to expose the screw heads. The motor resides in a plastic saddle and all that is needed to isolate it from the frame is to either trim off the brass tabs that make contact with the inside of the frame half or simply cover the brass tabs with Kapton tape. Because you stated that this was an older version of the model there wouldn’t be wires running from the light board to the motor as in the newer Walthers release. Hope this helps
Those plastic caps over the screw heads are there to make it possible for the contacts to pass over without being torn up. I have used an exacto blade to pull these off. Just remember to put them back on before trying to put the body back on.
Thanks to all three of you. You answered my question. It was the plastic covers over the screw heads that kind of threw me. Never saw that before but it makes sense now.
Pried off the plastic caps and disassembly was easy. Hardest part was getting the body off the chassis without messing up the electrical contacts which I was not too successful in doing. There has to be a way to run/or test the decoder without totally reassembling the locomotive. Maybe devise some temporary electrical path between the truck and the chassis.
Some people have eliminated the fragile bronze electrical contact strips by replacing them with wired connections soldered directly to the pickup points on the trucks. You have to use small gauge wire that is extremely flexible, sometimes referred to as "noodle wire." It's a type of stranded wire with many tiny strands, which makes the wire more flexible than normal stranded wire. Mind you, I have not used "noodle wire," but I recall reading that others have used it. - Jeff
I have wired mine with direct eletrical wires soldered to the trucks. Runs a lot better than it did before.
Commonly called silicone wire. We use them all the time in radio control airplane battery packs. Just look for the really really really small gauge. In R/C we mainly use 14-12-10 gauge for the lipo battery leads.
