How do you fix...?

If you're not doing any switching, electro or manual, glue them with CA glue. Closed tight for good.

John,

If you rebuild, no more problems. Most are lazy now and don't. Easy to learn to do.

As there are many different coupler designs, repairing them requires a knowledge of how each design works, and what causes them to malfunction.

 

To help, the type of coupler design needs to be known. Pictures of the troublesome truck/couplers would be needed. Each design gets repaired differently.

 

Larry

 

 

I have only run into this with plastic trucks and one cure is to get some rubber bands designed for braces

Hi if you replace these parts which are readily available from e Bay sellers you should have no more problems and the parts are cheap!

Alan just click on the web sight below!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lionel...;hash=item19bec9160a

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lionel...;hash=item4846fbd9a4

 

or the second one is good to!usually the spring is what breaks and then won't stay locked or the spring gets weak threw time, (OLD AGE)metal fatigue

One reason that many couplers open is the poor casting of the knuckles.  I take the knuckles and file the mating surfaces smooth.  This prevents the latching pin from "walking" down the locking surface and allowing the coupler to open.

Hi

 

Where do you get the tool to hammer the rivet flat? I saw a Lionel tech use a tool to do it correctly. Or does anybody have a better way of doing it?

If we are referring to plastic trucks. You could buy a pair of lionel die cast trucks with the new metal armature shaft. These can be fit into most standard cars. As they screw in.

 

 

Clinching over rivets is done with a rivet press, but a hand rivet set is available.

The rivet press, with the proper wheel cups is also used to press on wheels, quartering steam engine wheels properly.

 

Larry

The rivet press is best but I just use a center punch to start the flare followed by a pin punch.

 

Pete

I just wrap them with a thin strip of electrical tape to keep them closed.

Small neoprene O rings available at dollar stores in flea markets usually in a box of assorted sizes work great on keeping the plastic couplers closed and they will still open when you use the uncoupler section. Dollar Tree may have them also.

Not sure if it is still commonly sold, but I bought a simple set consisting of just 2 different units to flare the rivet combined with a small round (cupped) block of metal to place the head of the rivet against when flaring it.  I got this from a tool dealer at a train meet.  Probably was less than $20 for the 3 items as a set.

 

-Dave

 

I use the Brakeman's Rivet Tool Set.  It has all the stuff you need for common riveting tasks.  You can buy the individual pieces for specific tasks as well.  I didn't buy a couple of the big dies for specific locomotives.

 

Some folks use pilot pin punches (also called roll pin punches) to roll the semi-tubular rivets that are frequently used on Lionel trains.

I have seen them on some parts dealer lists.

Here is an EBay search.

Thanks one and all for the replies. The rivet press is out of my budget for now. However the Brakeman's Rivet tools are more in line with my budget. I will save up for the Brakeman's Rivet set. But for the quick fix for now I like the Gene and Lee suggestion.  Thank you again.

Hi again

 

The spring that go inside the Post War couplers where can I find a supplier for that?

 

 

http://www.ttender.com/partslist.html

I just posted this a couple of days ago on this forum.

 

There has been a lot of discussion on this forum and others about the problem of Lionel magnetic couplers coming open all by themselves. Tonight, I was running a train of 22 cars behind a 2032 Alco single motor diesel. 14 of the cars are post war with metal trucks and 8 are postwar with plastic trucks. None have the low friction bearings and fast angle wheels. The car behind the loco was a long black gondola, NYC. Pulling just the cars, the front coupler came open. It did it twice after about 3 laps of the 072 oval. The 072 oval has 16 sections of 072 curved track and two 40" long straight sections. 

After the gondola coupler had opened up twice, I modified it using a Dremel tool with a 1/8" cutter. If you open the coupler and look on the knuckle where the pin touches it, you will see a witness mark where the pin has been rubbing up and down on the knuckle. This is where you want to make a groove in the knuckle that is parallel to the pin, or maybe I should say the groove should be parallel to the rivet that the knuckle pivots on. It takes less than 5 seconds to make the groove. Don't make the groove any deeper than absolutely necessary. If you examine the flat on the knuckle where the pin holds the knuckle closed, you will discover that the surface the pin contacts is not parallel to the pin. The pin therefore walks down due to vibration. The cattle of a 3656 operating cattle car work in a similar way. 

After I modified the gondola, I decided to increase the weight of the train. I put a 2032 Alco diesel dummy and a 2353 F-3 dummy behind the gondola. No problem, after several minutes, the knuckles remained closed on the gondola. Then I took the 3656 cattle car that was behind the diesel dummies, and put it ahead of them so it was immediately behind the modified gondola. As if by magic, the coupler on the cattle car opened up all by itself. 

I just modified the couplers on the cattle car, and now they stay closed. I think this is the solution to the couplers opening by themselves. Don't forget, you don't need to modify the plastic knuckles.

 

 

Pictures would be great.

 

John, How do I post a picture?  I haven't done it for several years.

Bruce, check out this thread: Posting Pictures From Your Computer.

 

You can also link direct if they're already on the web, say at PhotoBucket or the like.  Just click the icon to the left of the smiley on the toolbar at the top of the reply Window and paste the URL into the box.

 

 

This is a pretty good picture considering it was taken with a iPhone.  You can blow the picture up to see the detail better.  The groove is to the right end of the sloped surface that the pin engages to hold the coupler closed.

John, I used the Add Attachments to post the picture.  Worked just fine.

The groove is in the surface that I smooth to make them more reliable, I'll have to try that and see if it works for me.

 

John, You don't need to smooth the whole surface.  If you did the whole surface, you would need to make it parallel to the rivet (or the pin).  All you need is the groove where the pin contacts the knuckle.  If it takes you more than 2 seconds to make the groove, you are wasting time (seriously, it is very quick).

Is this in anyway similar on the MTH diecast couplers. I have 3 or 4 boxcars and 2 engines that constantly pop open with only 5 or 6 cars in tow. I piddled a bit but never got around to serious examination of the offending couplers.

Electrocouplers will be different on the engines, that's the ones I normally smooth the latching surface for.

Charlie,

I don't have any MTH couplers that I can look at right now.  I have most of my trains in storage.  If they are copies of Lionel couplers, you can examine them to see if they are opening due to the sloped surface.  

 

John, I haven't dissected any electro couplers.  The 736 I used for some of the tests, and the 2032 dummy and the 2325 dummy all have electro couplers, and they didn't give me any trouble.  

I think you're thinking of the old PW electrocouplers triggered by the track shoe, I'm talking about the modern ones on command locomotives.

 

I had a batch of plastic trucks from one of the smaller companies that had the problem that Servoguy is describing. I could see that the edge of the cam was not square. I resolved the problem by replacing the knuckles with genuine modern era Lionel plastic knuckles.

 

 

All the locos I used for the test are operated by the sliding shoe.  If you are having trouble with modern couplers coming open, I would check to see if the surface where the pin holds the coupler closed is parallel to the pin.  This is going to require removing the knuckle.