The motor is grounded to the frame. That’s going to have to be handled just like an Athearn BB loco. I did a tutorial on this last year. Here it is. This simply gets the loco ready for a DCC conversion.
Preparing an Athearn BB locomotive for DCC conversion.
This does not cover installing a decoder. Simply how to wire the loco, so that with only a couple of easy splices, it can be
converted to DCC with a minimum of trouble. When you finish the technique covered here, your loco will run on DC only
in DC mode on DCC. The photos included have information on wiring in a decoder. It is for basic functions only. Other
functions you will have to set up yourself.
If you have trouble reading the photos, Email a request to me and I’ll Email them to you.
Step 1: Remove shell and any weight covering the motor.
Step 2: Remove contact strip from top of motor. This connects the motor to the trucks.
Step 3:Remove worm gear housing from front truck. Carefully remove worm assembly from truck and set aside. Remove truck.
Repeat step 3 for rear truck. Do not get trucks confused. If you put them back in the wrong place (front truck at rear) your loco
will run backwards.
Step 4: Remove plastic headlight clip and bulb.
Step 5: Grasp motor between thumb and forefinger and push to one side. Pull out motor and one mount pad.
Step 6: Turn motor over and locate the two metal clips on the bottom. They stick downwards and make contact with the
locos frame. These must be removed. Place two strips of electrical tape in the bottom of the motor well of the loco. This will
insure that the motor does not contact the frame. Don’t block the holes for the motor pads.
Step 7: Cut a piece of 18 gauge wire long enough to reach from the bottom of the mo
