I wanted to convert a AB set of Life Like FM C-Liners to DCC. They run impressively quite and smooth, so I decided that it would be worthwhile to tackle that project. They are just stand-ins until my Milwaukee Bipolar is painted and DCC'd, but that is for another day. Life-Like is using a split-frame for the C-Liners, so conversion is quite difficult as there is no provision for motor isolation or routing of the wires. I wanted to retain the see-through effect of the cab on the A-unit, so I could not put the decoder in the cab. Luckily the B-unit has the same frame design, so there is space for the decoder in the "cab". After completely disassembling the engine I market the area to be cut away to make room for the decoder: I have used a small metal saw, making two cuts in the frame half. The second frame half does not need to be altered. In addition I cut away the small protrusion in the middle of the frame. It sits directly on top of the motor but has no apparent purpose (I forgot to take a pic...). For the B-unit only this protrusion has to go. I then test fit a Digitrax DZ 123 and worked the wire routing. You can see that the decoder fits nicely, but getting the wire to the lower motor brush is tricky. I shortened both motor contact strips so they will no longer touch the frames. The orange wire goes to the top contact. I have used heat-shrink tubing over wire and contact strip to positively isolate them. Push the tubing right to the motor and there will be no shorts to the frame. The grey wire to the lower motor contact needs to come from the front of the engine, as the motor brushes are oriented to the front. I cut a small groove into the outside of the frame using a router in my Dremel (use eye protection). The grey wire goes along the top of the motor to the cab space, down the outside of the frame and to the lower motor contact. Again I used heat-shrink tubing for isolation. Now is the time to reassmble the drivetrain and the frames. This is how it looks like after reassembly: You can see the groove behind the yellow tape... To power the decoder I drilled holes into the frames directly in front of the decoder (I did this before reassembly but did not take pictures until later) and tapped them for small machine screws. I used these screws to fasten brass strips to the frame, soldering the black and red wired to them. Here is a pic (sorry, it is a little out of focus): Now all that is left to do is to connect the blue and white wires to the headlight. I cut the traces on the headlight board (it is not much of a board but more a holder for the bulb) and drilled small holes into the board, threading the wires through them and soldering them to the bulb leads. The headlight wires go straight through the cab, but I have painted them black so they become "invisible". .... to be continued....
Here is the finished install: For the B-unit I have put the decoder in the cab space in the front of the engine, so there is no need for the "big cut". The only frame modifications are cutting away the small frame protrusion and to drill and tab for the screws to affix the red and black wires. Now I have a nice set of C-Liners pulling Milwaukee passenger trains until the Bipolar is ready. Cheers Dirk
