Lionel 11157 3 Truck Shay rear pick-up roller not getting power. And front coupler not closing.

This topic has popped up several times in the past.  Actually, the shell is easy to take off.  THE PROBLEM IS: PUTTING IT BACK ON!   It is a REAL BEAR!

What I found to help was loosening the side gears a little to provide some wiggle room for the shell to come off.  However, somehow, the internal "workings" expanded, because it did not seem as though there was enough room to put the shell back on !  I think I ended up grinding some of the internal side walls down with a Dremel to provide some extra room for the shell to fit.

I am not an expert at repairs, but like to take on the challenge when the time presents itself.  To be honest, I would think twice about taking one of these apart again.

Thanks for the post.  I'm just not sure what to do now.  I imagine sending it to a dealer might end up pretty expensive.  I might be able to fix the wiring but it will still have the front coupler issue.  That front truck and coupler is 95.00 on Lionel's site.  Yikes!

There is like zero room inside the shell.  I took mine apart to install an ERR Cruise Commander M, and it ended up being about a 3-4 hour job!  Just the different positioning of the connectors and the 1/8" difference in length from the stock DCDR was enough to make the job a Royal PITA!  I actually had visions of installing my Chuff-Generator, but after seeing the available room, I realized that was a pipe dream!

Thanks Gunrunner.  Will Lionel itself still work on these or is it just local hobby shops?  

Lionel does no non-warranty work, so it's just local repair shops.

So I dropped it off at a local hobby shop.  I talked to them on the phone and they can fix the wiring problem.  For the coupler, they said it works fine when a car is used with it.  They said a car pushed on the right place but when I was doing it with my fingers it wasn't.  Is that a common thing?  I really didn't fiddle with it much.  I don't remember if I tried a car at all.  I know it seemed locked pretty solid when I tried by hand though.

Personally, I think they just didn't want to address the issue.  It's pretty common for these couplers to be problematic.  Sometimes, the close easily by hand but not if you try to couple a car.  Other times they'll coupler a car, but seem locked if you just try to push the coupler closed.

The only "fix" I've found is either replacement and shoot the dice if you're getting a good one, or disassemble the coupler and polish the mating surfaces.  I've been able to make a balky coupler silky smooth with a little work on the latching parts, but it does require you pull the knuckle and then rivet it back on when you're done.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Personally, I think they just didn't want to address the issue.

Thanks @gunrunnerjohn, I appreciate all the insight you've given on this forum.