So far I have done 4 of these locos they are a nice running well detailed loco. One might even ask why a install sheet on them, they are DCC ready. Well there are a few things about these locos you might want to know before you install a decoder.

The full stall current of the motor comes in at a dead 800 mA. I selected the Digitrax DH140 for these. If you do not need the full features of the DH140P a DH120P [the P is the NMRA plug]  will work just fine. The decoder will sit on the rear section of the frame with no problem. It fits either on the rear section of the stock PCB or on the frame just in front of the rear lamp, assuming short hood forward.

There is no reason to go into detail on how to remove the hood, it you already have one, you know it comes with the hood already removed for you. One of Life-Like's better ideas. But there are a few cravats about this loco that you should know before you find yourself asking questions about it. The following is in know way meant to criticize or anything else negative about Life-Like, they are presented here just to help you figure out what is going on.

If you decide to put this loco on a DCC layout with out a decoder to break it in, or just see how it runs, you will find a few odd things happen..   It will run a very s  l  o   w speed. And the directional lights will all be on in both directions, but very very dim. Do not think there is anything wrong with the loco, it will work fine on regular DC. It is just the way Life-Like designed their PCB for this loco.
The next thing you will find is they still do not mark pin one of the NMRA socket on the board. But fear not, if you look at your directions sheet that came with the loco, you will find they do know have a diagram of the PCB with pin one marked on it. If you are looking at the PCB from the rear, again short hood assumed front, you will find pin one is on the lower left of the socket.
Now all that is left is plug the decoder in. Well may be not. Before you plug anything in to the NMRA socket, make sure there are no pins shorting to any other pin on the socket. These shorts can come from several areas, such as a solder bridge on the bottom of the PCB, a stray wire connecting to the PCB, mis-wired socket, etc. These should be checked on any loco not just the Life-Like.  Use a Ohm meter, continuity tester, what ever. You are looking for dead shorts, you might find resistance from diodes, resistors, etc. they are not a problem, it is the dead short that will cause a problem for you. After you have done this then go ahead and plug in the decoder.
Plug it in, and as usual put it on a current limited program track such as the PR-1 or service mode track. Make sure you can read the CVs. If so you know there are no shorts and still have a working decoder. Now you can either go ahead and program up the decoder, or put it on the layout and see how it runs default.
Here is the next thing you will more then likely find, the front and rear lights work as they should, but are so dim you will have to turn the room lights out to even see they are lit. This is an easy fix, once you figure out which PCB is in the loco. I do not know how many different PCBs that Life-Like uses on this particular loco, but I have found 3 so far and they all have dim lights on DCC and the lights are fine on DC. All I can tell you is that 2 of the boards have a part number of 432-X001R1, but one is green in color and has 2 resistors on it, and the other is white in color and has only 1 resistor. The other is white in color 1 resistor and no number I can find on it. Any all you have to do is solder a resistor across the top of the existing resistor to bring the lights up to where they should be. On the boards with 2 resistors this is the front resistor that goes across the board. On mine I find a 330ohm works fine.

Now for the last one, putting the shell on the loco.. This should be simple enough, but again there seems to be a little problem with it. On some the shell will pop right on like it should, on others this is not the case. If you look up inside the shell under the side walkways near the front of the loco, you will might see two small posts sticking out from the shell, one on each side. Now look at this location on the frame, you might find there is only a hole on one side and not the other, or a hole on one side that is to small for the post. If you happen to find this, then just snip off the offending post/posts. Now with a little care you can get the shell to snap down on the frame. But if it still will not go, then the little hook tabs on the shell are not going into the frame.
You have a couple of choices here. Find the ones that are not going in and trim them down a bit till they do, or just cut them off along with the posts. But this may not let you have a shell that is held down to the frame pending how and what couplers you use.

For couplers again there are a few choices here. And your choice might depend on how you handled the little tabs to hold the shell on. One way is to remove the stock mounts and mount KaDee  #37s. The other is to keep the stock mount and pocket and use McHenery MCH-13s. I know some of you do not like the plastic couplers, but all I can say is so far they have worked fine for me. Any way if you use the stock pockets, and have cut off the tabs on the shell, the pilots when attached will hold the shell on just fine.

One more little hint. The light bar under the fans in the rear, you will find this lights up the rear fan/s. While you have the shell off you might just want to pop it out, it is the rear light and light boards. You can paint the top of the bar with a black or silver paint, or if you have a piece of shiny tape, such as mylar, stick it on top to help reflect the light, then paint the top of the tape a flat black so it does not show though the fans.

After you are all done, you will have a very nice running, quite,  well detailed SD9. Oh did I say they look GREAT!!!
 
 

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