My US Army passenger set has a loose/broken coupler. The coupler is loose and doesn’t stay connected. Do I need to replace the entire truck or just the coupler? If so where can I buy a replacement?
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Is this a Lionel or MTH. I have truck and coupler stuff coming out my ears. If you can remove the truck and show the coupler I may have a replacement depending on what is broken. If so, I'll just send it to you.
It is an old MTH tooling Atlas train
can the coupler be removed?
Is it loose on the truck or uncoupling when going through curves? If the latter, the tab on the uncoupling plate is exerting too much force on the linkage between the tab and coupler. Bending the tab (which is a pain to do) to loosen the slack helps, as long as the plate doesn’t hang down.
I removed the bottom of the car and tightened the little screw on the coupler. This solved the slacking problem that was causing it to uncouple. The couple still doesn’t spring side to side like the others. I will test it as is and hopefully that took care of the issue
The spring is probably out of place or missing.
So my tightening of the screw didn’t work. Are there replacement couplers or assemblies I can buy?
Go to Atlas’ site and find O scale parts. They show a couple available. One is listed for a baggage car and one has no picture. Big difference in price between the 2. The baggage car features a roller and not sure what the difference is between them. They are listed under Premier.
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So I replaced the trucks and now the track gives me an error when I place that car. Wasn’t hard to replace the trucks so not sure how I would have screwed this up.
You said your getting a track error. I’m guessing your breaker is tripping when this car is placed on the track. The connections to the truck are different so no mixing them up. I blew up your picture. The ground connection to the truck frame. The way the wire is routed. The wires insulation is right up against the lug the center rail wire attaches to. It could have chafed through.
John mentioned the centering spring may be missing or not doing it’s job on the original truck. I run all Kadee’s with metal boxes and couplers. The pin resides somewhat close to the center rail. If the couplers pin just faintly touches the center rail. The centering spring takes the hit and just shrivels up and is useless.
I’d there first. Use a meter and touch the roller and outside rail wire and see if there’s continuity. There shouldn’t be any. Move the wire around and pivot the truck back and forth to make sure. It doesn’t take much to cause an issue
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