My install was straightforward. I disassembled the loco, cleaned all drive train parts after soaking in Dawn dish soap, filed any burrs from the gears, and replaced the cracked (and uncracked) axle gears with Athearn parts (which were a tight fit). I also cleaned the commutator with 91% IPA and a pencil eraser and cleaned out the slots on the commutator with a hobby knife. The brass worm gears were also cleaned with a hobby knife. The factory wheelsets were checked under magnification and thoroughly cleaned; you'd be surprised what dirt shows up under the Magni-Visor, including the truck pivot on the bolsters. The frame was also eyed for warping. I reassembled the loco, testing each truck for free rolling, then adding a few drops of plastic-compatible oil at the gear posts and light plastic-compatible grease to the gears themselves. I applied drops of Conducta-Lube wherever there is mechanical electrical contact, including on the truck bearings. I tested the motor out of the chassis, insulating the bottom contact from the chassis with masking tape. I removed the lightboard per the original Life-Like instructions, and plugged the LM into the factory 8-pin plug. It ran, but needed a few thrust washers around the rear worm to remove slop in the drive and quiet the gears. I also added masking tape where the shell touches the chassis, to further reduce noise. (There isn't any additional weight besides the chassis, so the shell acts like an echo chamber.) I ran it for a half-hour in both directions to seat the gears; it drew 630 mA on the current test compared to the 360 mA or so on my Atlas/Kato drives. No lights or sound at this time. I MUed it with an Atlas GP-7, but that's another story.
