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 Posted - September 27 2016 : 9:35:19 PM
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I bought a Mantua General American Refrigerator Express Dairymen's League reefer car from the LHS junk bins for a dollar or two, and it's a nice piece I'd say. Metal trucks, metal base, nice and weighty, decent detail (for me, anyways). Problem is, the couplers are broken! I can see there's the remains still in the coupler pocket, but the actual hook coupler? Long snapped off. The coupler pockets seem fairly sealed off, and I can't see a way to replace the coupler without snipping the coupler pocket off the truck and body mounting it. I don't really want to cut them up (and since the coupler pocket seems to be metal as well, I don't think I can), but it seems like the only option. Any ideas? Worst comes to worst this guy will get tucked on my display shelf, as it's quite nice, and I'll bite on the other one of these that inhabits the "Cars without Kadees $3" case at my LHS.
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
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Posted - September 27 2016 : 9:46:45 PM
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It it one of the old ones with the rivet? Got a pic?
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Posted - September 27 2016 : 10:47:50 PM
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Here's a picture of the truck and how it attaches, using a small screw.
This one shows the broken coupler (slightly) better.
I should also note that there's very little on the bottom of this car, just "MANTUA" and "2".
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
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Posted - September 28 2016 : 12:53:11 AM
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yeah well its still a Tyco though
I seen a thread in here I think about how to replace these couplers
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Posted - September 28 2016 : 10:44:11 AM
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Found it!!
http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16835&SearchTerms=Mantua,Coupler
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Posted - September 28 2016 : 11:17:47 AM
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if you are careful you can lever the two halves of the coupling box apart,replace the coupling and push the two halves together again
catfordken
if you cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel,try turning around
Edited by - catfordken on September 28 2016 11:22:37 AM
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Posted - September 28 2016 : 1:03:29 PM
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I have had this problem too, this how I fixed my couplers...
1. Remove the rivet by either filling off the flared end or drilling it out.
2. Gently pry the coupler cover off the truck.
3. Replace the coupler.
4. Using a Tiny screw and nut, re-assemble the coupler.
5. Once the screw and nut are tight, add some CA glue to lock the nut in place.
Proudly keeping Tyco Pluggers out of landfills since 2016
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Posted - September 28 2016 : 4:45:37 PM
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With some careful prying with a small screwdriver, I've seperated the two halves. Now, to replace the coupler. Since with my layout I've decided to convert to kadees, any idea if there's any kind of kadee that'd fit in place of the Mantua coupler?
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
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Posted - September 28 2016 : 6:36:32 PM
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| Check here http://www.kadee.com/conv/hocc.htm
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Posted - September 29 2016 : 11:17:33 PM
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If you don't want to ruin the hole, I'd recommend drilling the rivet out, do NOT just pry the two pieces apart! I just did a coupler replacement on 3 Mantua C&O passenger cars with this type of old style riveted arm, it's safer to drill them out than to risk the damage and bending the arms by prying against the brass rivet. It will give, but you may damage the coupler arm doing it that way. I'd play it save and drill them out carefully, you will need special tiny drill bits to do so. I usually enlarge the hole for a 2-56 screw, but I also just used some smaller screws I'd saved from CD and Floppy drive scrapping which are way smaller, and I mounted the couplers on the Mantua's with those. Kadee #148 whiskers worked best for this job. Have fun!
Jerry, train repair guy.
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - September 30 2016 : 4:01:19 PM
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Thanks for the tips AMC Gremlin, I'll make sure to be a bit more careful when tackling the second Mantua reefer (if it's still at the shop next week!). The #148 Kadees also look a lot nicer than the #38 Kadees that the conversion chart recommends.
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
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