Installing MTL Couplers

[chuck geiger]

I didn't fell like screwing around with a .062 drill and tap to install couplers. I applied a thin
coating of CA to the back of the draft gear box and BOOM! - It worked and so far, they haven't
popped off. I know this isn't the best way, but it seems to work.

[chuck geiger]

Sorry MICRO TRAIN LINES couplers....

[3rdrail]

What specific coupler are you referring to? Considering that both the 1015 and 1025 depend on the "boss" on the top coupler piece having free movement on the slot in the top of the draft gear box, you're playing with fire by using CA. I keep the drill and tap in a separate little plastic tube, so it takes only a couple of minutes to mount couplers properly using the 00-90 screws.

[tillsbury]

Sometimes CA doesn't stick too well to the MT coupler plastic, especially since you can use only a tiny amount.  The MT coupler "kit" contains the correct drill and tap, with all the other trick bits that make assembly and adjustment dead easy.  I sometimes use the tiniest bit of CA to stop the couplers rotating around the screw, but otherwise I suspect you might have trouble when your trains get long...

Charles

[amato1969]

Agreed!  My experience is that ACC doesn't have much shear strength -- I use the screws.

[wm3798]

I've got a bunch of cars, 55 ton hoppers mostly, where I've cut the Accumates off the trucks and installed them with a dot of CA.  The hoppers are entering their third or fourth year of service with only one failure in that time.  I've got about 40 of them, and they run a lot, up hills down hills, around bends, pushed and pulled. 
But, Accumate's pocked design isn't conducive to screw mounting, and the box surface that gets glued has a very low risk of leaking the glue.

Lee

[chuck geiger]

I don't have any interference with the draft gear box and the trucks on the Roundhouse cars I just CA'ed MTL couplers to. I think they are 1036. I don't know...Quite frankly in HO it was easy #5's on everything...everyone of these manufacturers put in different couplers. I want to convert them all to MTL.

[chuck geiger]

Sometimes CA doesn't stick too well to the MT coupler plastic, especially since you can use only a tiny amount.  The MT coupler "kit" contains the correct drill and tap, with all the other trick bits that make assembly and adjustment dead easy.  I sometimes use the tiniest bit of CA to stop the couplers rotating around the screw, but otherwise I suspect you might have trouble when your trains get long...

Charles

Tills - what couplers have the tap and drill?

[bsoplinger]

I believe he was referring to their coupler starter kit which includes the drills and tap and a height gauge and an assembly jig and graphite lube and a few pair of assembled and unassembled couplers:
http://www.micro-trains.com/tools.php

You can also get their just their drill and tap set, with 2 drills, one for the screw, one a clearance drill and 1 tap:
http://www.micro-trains.com/tools_tap.php

[randgust]

Man, I wouldn't use CA anywhere near those couplers.  Sorry.  It's natural tendency is to want to capillary spread out to wherever it can go, and one good knock and it will pop loose.  Of course, that's probably better than a broken coupler.

But, when I'm body-mounting the passenger car type boxes (for really low back-clearance situations, even thinner than a 1015/16) I'll usually 'goo' the box to the frame.  That works really well when done in contact release mode.  Never had one of those come off.  But there's no other way to do that.

[Dave V]

I've done the CA thing once or twice...  I think the trick is to use a dot of the super-thick stuff so it's less likely to run everywhere.  None of the cars I did it to are in regular service on my layout at the moment, so I can't attest to reliability.

[DKS]

I've done the CA thing once or twice...  I think the trick is to use a dot of the super-thick stuff so it's less likely to run everywhere.  None of the cars I did it to are in regular service on my layout at the moment, so I can't attest to reliability.

I've used the thick CA trick to body-mount couplers. Mostly I use it on cabeese, which prove quite reliable since there is virtually no sheer tension placed on them. I've had mixed success with other cars; I've never had an issue with gumming any of them up, but I have had a few pop off.

[engineshop]

I stared using Atlas coupler screw #23017. A small hole is usually all it takes and the screw fits perfectly into the MT coupler hole. It is more expensive than CA glue but works for me.