MTH recently announced the availability of Two-Truck packs for Weaver Roller Bearing (20-89023) and Weaver Bettendorf (20-89022) Freight Cars. These are all-metal, costing $30 for a truck pair.
Owning several Menards shelf-queen cars, I was curious if these could be adapted as a replacement for unreliable "plastic" couplers.
The first step is removing the faulty truck assembly. In many cases, the Menards truck is held to the frame with either a serrated pin or a rivet. Prying off the truck is the easiest removal method.
Here is the original truck with the bad knuckle:
Pried off:
The immediate problem is that the attachment point of these MTH truck sets is below the top of the wheels while Menards is higher, allowing a more simple attachment to a frame.
Menards Truck:
MTH Weaver Truck:
Thus it became obvious that some adaptation would be needed to attach the MTH Weaver Truck to the Menards frame.
Here is what I used:
Two 3mm high spacers, 4mm diameter hole. (I didn't have a 6-8 mm spacer lying around.)
3mm x 25mm Flat Head Clevis Pin
1.0 x 16mm Cotter Pin
I drilled a 1/8" hole into the frame where the serrated screw was attached.
I also drilled out the mounting hole in the MTH coupler arm:
Starting from the bottom of the MTH truck, I put the Clevis pin through the truck and coupler:
Then I put the two 3mm spacers on the pin, atop the coupler.
Inside the frame, I attached the Cotter Clip to the end of the Clevis Pin.
Doing several test runs, all is good again. Mission accomplished!
The obvious question is why spend all this money on a train car that costed less than all the repair parts. The answer is that Menards offers some very unique cars that I don't want sitting on a shelf. Also, all-metal trucks and couplers can always be obtained at lower prices at train shows. And many truck assemblies may be found that are more suitable to the Menards frame. Nevertheless, the above procedure is just one possible method to replace those pesky Menards plastic trucks and couplers.
