Has some of you might have noticed, I'm a newbie to MTL couplers. I have installed trucks and universal couplers on Atlas trucks but I still have a few questions. 1. Is it possible to glue body mounted couplers. I have a deLuxe Woodchip Gon that'd I'd like to install them on but I'm not really at ease with a drill. 2. What couplers do you need to convert the older trucks that were found on older Atlas cars and Minitrix cars. They are the one that have a little clip thing to hold the Rapido and spring in place. much help appreciated
The only time i have glued couplers is on the caboose because there is no load. It is quite easy to drill and tap other cars to mount couplers. MT provide a kit that has the correct drills and tap to body nount couplers. I'm not susre what trucks you need but i'm sure some of the other members will be able to give you advice
You can use contact cement to glue the mounting box to the frame. You can use just about any glue you want to, just make sure the glue will hold on to the box. Some types of glue will not bind to the box. I like to drill out a hole and screw the box to the frame. Once you have the screw done right you don't have to worry about it pulling off of the frame. If you are going to body mount your MT's, do all of your cars if you can. When you mix truck mounted and body mounted couplers you can have trouble. The body mounted cars will pull the truck mounted cars off the rails on sharp curves. Body mounts will push backwards better than truck mounts because you are pushing on the car frames, not on the truck frames. I am not sure which Mt coupler to tell you to use on older trucks. I don't convert the coupler alone, I convert the whole truck itself. Why put nice new MT's on old poor rolling trucks? Check out how much better new MTL trucks roll on the track. Take a old metal wheeled truck off of a car and flip it with your finger so it rolls down the track. Do the same with a MTL truck and see how much farther the MTL truck will roll. In my book there are very few other brands of trucks that will even come close to rolling as well as a Micro-Trains Line truck will.
Do you have a pin vise? Having one to drill plastic is almost manditory and makes the job sooooo much easier. If you must glue only, I recommend using CA (super glue). If you roughen up the mating surfaces of both the coupler pocket and the part you are gluing it to with a file, the bond will be reasonably strong.
The trucks with that little metal clip are easy to convert : bend open the clip and take it out (carefully, you'll need it again). Take out the Rapido stuff. Take MTL 1128 (or 1129 if you think you need that extra length) and measure with the U-shaped metal piece. Cut the pin in thruck pocket so short that iit will hold the U-shaped part (don't have the official MTL name for it at hand) in place. The assemble the coupler with trip pin, spring etc., and put the coupler in the pocket of the truck. Close the pocket by inserting the metal clip again, then check for proper height and smooth operation. These trucks were relatively easy to convert, though I think the 1128/29/30 couplers rely too much on the external pockets for operation, and this leads to sometimes random results. Newer trucks from Atlas with all-plastic coupler pockets were "conversion resistant", you could only cut off the couplers and use body mounted MTL 1027 (e.g. on all my old Atlas 40' boxcars). Hope this helps a bit. Christoph
