Morning all. I got some Kaydee #5’s in the mail today to replace the ones on my new P2K GP38-2’s. The problem is that they are to short and when double headed hit on the plows in a curve causing both locos to derail. What couplers do I need to put on the P2Ks to make them work together?
Also I was going to replace the couplers on my Bauchman Silver Series rolling stock but the hole in the center of the Kaydee couplers are to small and will not go over the stud in the coupler pocket. The couplers will not fit on the Atherns cars either, the holes in the couplers are to large for the stud in the pockets.
What can be done to correct these problems? I thought the Kaydee couplers were sort of universial. I must be wrong again.
Please help. Mike
Mike,
If you go to the Kadee site you will find they have long, short, and medium length shank couplers. They also have offset shanks, up and down, to compensate for a car being to tall or short.
I have installed a ton of Kadee #5’s on various makes of rolling stock and have not had a problem with the hole being too big or small. You may have to mill the old stud off and replace it with a Kadee draft gear box. I did that in several cases but found the Kadee’s to fit most of the time.
Bill
I’m trying to think over here. I’ve put Kadees on nearly every type of blue-box car Athearn makes…and haven’t run into that problem. What Athearn cars are you having trouble with?
Edit: Did Athearn change the coupler pockets on the R-T-R line?
I use the kadee #26 for my locomotives and long passenger cars…( i think it’s the #26) anyway, the one that’s a center shank long - especially if i’m installing snowplows on them…the #5’s don’t work too well with locomotives…
Now, if the #5 doesn’t fit your rolling stock, take a hobby knife and cut off the stock gear box and replace it with the kadee draft gear box.
what i do is carefully shave off the old gearbox, glue on a kadee gear box to the underframe, and then drill a hole out thru the center for a 2-56 screw to fit (you may need to also drill a hole in the weight plate so that the screw doesn’t press up against it and then won’t get tight when you try to tighten the 2.56 screw).
The 2-56 screw holds the entire assembly together thru the center of the draft grear box…using the two loops on the sides of the draft gear box for screws to secure the draft gear box isn’t a good idea since the wheels can hit them on a curve and cause a derailment…chuck
KD #46 is their longer version of the #5.
They are, but some manufacturers give KD problems. Contact KD for specific conversions. Notice 'Kadee’s preferred spelling
According to the Kadee site a #5 or #148 are the correct couplers.http://www.kadee.com/conv/holist.pdf Since you are finding them too short the next longer looks like it would be a #46, if you want to stick with the #5’s mounting box. http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page25b.htm
The only silver series listed on the Kadee conversion page is the 100 ton hopper and it lists the #5 as the correct coupler for that. You could ream the coupler or scrape the mounting pin down a bit.
That is not a problem, that actually gives the coupler a tiny bit of slack. These are the cars that these couplers were designed for.
The few folks who are in the Kadee #5 coupler for everything camp go to much unnecessary work to force fit them everywhere. Many don’t realize how much Kadee has expanded their line. Kadee makes so many nice sizes and configurations now, one doesn’t need to do the force fitting thing anymore.
They have a nice catalog of what coupler fits what. It can be downloaded free.
hello fred…here you go http://www.kadee.com/
Thanks all. I just ordered some #46 (25/64 centershank) couplers from Kadee. The difference between the #26 and the #46 is that the # 46 is metal and the #26 is plastic if I am correct. I hope this will correct the problem with the locos. As for the rolling stock, I can use the # 5 on the Atherns OK. and the Bauchman cars they still stay coupled together so I’ll not mess with them right now. I did try to install a #5 on a different Bauchman car and the coupler will fit over the pin but I could not get the metal spring to go over it. Oh well it works for now.
Does anyone know how long it takes to get an order frm Kadee?
Thanks a lot for the help, By the way I did print out the Kadee conversion list, There is a lot of great info there, something to hang on to for future reference. Mike
they will be cheaper if you order then from www.discounttrainsonline.com or www.internettrains.com or even from Trainworld located in the MRR mag advertisement …Trainworld usually gets them to me within a couple of weeks…chuck
KADEE also has a new #156 coupler you might want to try. No telling when it will be in stores:
Click on picture to enlarge. |
One thing I noticed nobody has mentioned and is important when installing Kadee’s, get the Kadee coupler gauge. Installing the couplers at the proper height and trip pin clearance is vital to having reliable working couplers.
http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page120.htm
It’s only $4.00 and can save you MANY headaches in the future just using it to set all your couplers on the cars and locos.
Don, I bought several packs of the whisker couplers at my LHS about 4 months ago.
Dick
Texas Chief
Wow, I hadn’t heard about these. More way cool stuff.
Those Whiskers are usually direct replacements for any EZ mates you may have and worked great in the application I used them for. Be wary of the metal couplers if you are running DCC or older or metal chassis locos that carry current. My Athearn SW7 calf and cow needed a plastic between them else they shorted each other out when running head to toe.
Kadee also makes euro replacements which I popped into the ER models Amtrak Talgo set. That was a 5 second coupler swap job.
Re: Snow plows.
I have found SOME ‘glad hands’ (uncoupling wands - ‘hoses’) prevent coupling when ‘bent’ upward. ‘Bending’ can have a downside.
Raising the uncoupling wand can force contact with a (solid) snowplow, preventing coupling.
My solution when using Snowplows is to use the the longer #46 over the snowplow, and then to eliminate any ‘droop’ in any connecting cars, rather than ‘bend’.
SOMETIMES the ‘easy’ fixes have a downside.