Sliding Shoe Repair

Here is a pictorial of the assembly:

There should be a fiber plate on the back of the shoe. Sounds like yours is gone. Sometimes they break off.

There's a little fiber plate that holds the shoe to the truck. Look at the other truck and you'll see it, they are fragile and will break over time. You can get the whole truck assembly, pre-assembled, just google "Lionel 483-1" and you'll get alot of results. Or, if your comfortable with rivet pressing, you can buy a repair kit that comes with the shoe, rivet and fibre plate and you can do it yourself.

ADCX ROB, C W, PENN-PACIFIC, Thanks for the prompt responses.  I can see now that the little fiber piece is missing.  Has someone posted  step-by-step instructions on the replacement process?  I don't want to miss a step.

What is the best way to remove the coupler assembly from the axles?  If I buy the shoe, shoe plate, and rivet separately, do you assemble them into the coupler and then set the rivet?      I found some vendors sell the 483-1 already assembled and some even sell it with a wire soldered in place.  These start to get expensive vs. the 3 parts for less than $1.00.

Again, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks

DS Texas posted:

What is the best way to remove the coupler assembly from the axles?

It's easy, quick, & non-destructive to gently spread the bolster and truck sides enough to remove the axles, wheels, and bottom plate all at once. Reverse the procedure to reassemble after repairs.

Lionel sells the coupler w/slide shoe on their website for 8.50 each.

If you decide to repair the shoe, get all three pieces: the shoe, the rivet, and the fiber plate.

While it can be done, it is difficult to remove the rivet from the sliding shoe. Often the shoe will split when you try to remove the rivet. (But it can be done).

To install a new shoe, you will need something to act as an anvil. It will have to fit into the groove in the shoe so the rivet head rests directly on it. And you will need something to spread the end of the rivet. I suppose you could use a center punch. It's been a long time since I replaced a shoe without specialty tools.

The rivet should be snug, but you don't want to crack the shoe or backing plate.

Make certain you have the shoe oriented correctly before riveting, it is asymmetrical. I believe the slanted part of the shoe goes towards the center of the truck. The straight side toward the outside.
 

You probably already have finished with this but I had to fix a sliding shoe last year. I followed Rob's advice to take the truck apart and it worked like a charm. I also used Carls Brakeman Riveter and an anvil STX377 that I bought from Just Trains in Sussex New Jersey for about $14 that is perfect for sliding shoe repair. If you haven't finished the repair yet, the tools I mentioned make it very easy. Admittedly it makes it an expensive repair but I later used the riveter to repair an 1121 O-27 switch so I did get more use out of it right away.

actually I used the stx377  anvil and the Brakeman Riveter on an e-unit repair and just used the Brakeman Riveter for the sliding shoe repair and the 1121 switch repair.

Here is a link to the site for the Brakeman's Riveter.

In addition to the Brakeman's riveter (there are two models),  he makes a sliding shoe anvil, and two different sized anvils that help to stop a rivet from spinning when you try to drill it out. There are many other tools.

I would not get one of each part other than the shoe itself. It's very easy to crack and break the fiber plate and rivets have a nasty habit of falling off the table and getting swallowed by the Earth. They are very cheap.....order a few.

Roger

Also, it was mentioned above that you would need something to spread the end of the rivet. I've found (through trial and error), that if I cut a slit in the middle of the rivet end with a Dremel cutting wheel, it makes crushing the rivet end MUCH easier once you're ready to peen it or crush it with pliers. This seems to work for all but the tiniest rivets.

Roger

I think it is worth mentioning that some train parts folks sell standard pilot pin punches to roll over tubular rivets. Most Lionel rivets are semi-tubular.
I purchased a set of Mayhew Pilot pin punches on EBay.
Never used them on rivets, but I have used them on pins.