Repairing Rollers?

Which passenger cars are you trying to repair? Brasseur and/or Lionel might have the parts you need in stock.

Most rollers are riveted in place, so you would have to flare the pin with a rivet punch after inserting the new roller.

-John

Brasseur does not have them and I bought the last three today from MTTP.  Part Number 620-5497-165.

So I am now exploring just repairing the roller and pin.

I think a punch will be able to flair the pin, I should have thought about that.

I am only familiar with post war equipment.  Most post war collectors have the pin riveted at one end only.  To change the roller the unriveted end of the arm is bent away from the pin.  The arm with the pin is bent out just enough to get the old roller off and the new one on.  Then the arms are bent back carefully so no bends are left in the arm. The whole procedure takes a minute or two.  Hope yours are that easy. 

If you make a new inside roller "pin" out of small, thin walled brass tube a punch with a nice conic tip will flare it nicely and it will work.  The softer brass might not be as durable as a new factory pin but its worked for me for four years now of on-and -off running on some stuff I repaired.  If you do this I suggest experimenting before hand on some spare tube.  It doesn't take much of a hammer tap to flare it enough.

Out of curiosity, why did you have to replace the rollers?

Earl

I thought I would bring this thread to a conclusion.

I ordered three direct replacements from Bill at Modern Toy Train Parts. Bill was kind enough to send me a pin and roller along with the order to see it would work on the other ones.

I Had some fun as this was the first roller repair I was going to do. The process is easy. The first thing I did was to grind off the flared roller end with a dremel. Then you can pull the old pin and roller out.

Then I put the new pin and roller in the frame work. My roller has a small diameter on the one end. This is the side that you will flare. Flair was a simple process I use a small piece of metal for the side that has the fatter end of the pin. This makes the smaller side of the pin stick out from the frame. It is then just a simple job to flare this end with a hammer.

In about a minute you have replaced the roller.

I hope this helps someone out if they ever read this thread and a large thank you to Bill at Modern Toy Trains Parts.

Nice.  I am glad it worked out.  

Very good - glad to hear that!