How To Repair Coupler On N Guage Locomotive ?

Simply the couplers we apply in Z scale are tiny, potentially-troublesome, sometimes confusing, and oftentimes infuriating mechanisms. For years, there were only two types of couplers bachelor on Z-scale locomotives and rolling stock: Marklin "fishhook" couplers and Micro-Trains Line "knuckle" couplers.
Marklin couplers, shown left, were introduced with Z calibration in 1972 and are standard on most Marklin products. Then, in 2008, something funny happened: Micro-Trains stopped assuasive other manufacturers to sell rolling stock and locomotives with Micro-Trains couplers and trucks.
Whichever couplers y'all employ (and need not limit yourself to just one blazon), y'all'll also demand to contend with automated coupling, remote uncoupling, conversions, and repairs.
Assembly is a snap - just place the spring on the knob (see photo - a dab of glue is helpful if y'all're a beginner), so identify the coupler'south D-shaped hole over the pin on your car or locomotive.
Marklin uses these couplers on about of their rolling stock (some exceptions listed later in this article), and has done so since the dawn of Z scale in 1972.
Meet Assembling & Repairing MTL couplers for details and tips if your couplers aren't springy or if they aren't staying coupled. Here are instructions for installing MTL couplers on Marklin locomotives, on Marklin cars, and on American Z Lines rolling stock.
These are the couplers included with all American Z Lines locomotives and rolling stock, such as the F59PH and associated passenger cars, the GP7, SD70, and coalporters. Tip: some of AZL'southward truck-mounted couplers, like the un-assembled i in the photo, take 2 tabs that allow it snap on or off AZL's locomotive trucks. Notation: encounter the Z Scale Truck and Coupler Guide for further analysis of the Auto-Latch coupler and how it measures up against its competitors. Until a few years ago, every Micro-Trains car and locomotive was available with either MTL Marklin-style fishhook couplers or MTL knuckle couplers (a "-2" after a MTL model number meant it came with knuckle couplers), but Micro-Trains phased out the Marklin-coupled versions in the mid 2000s.
Although it may seem like a adept thought to become only Marklin-style couplers to work with the Marklin cars and locomotives you already have, Micro-Trains Marklin-style (MT #907 & #908) couplers, in a word, suck. Avert them if at all possible, although they remain the only practical way to install Marklin-uniform couplers on MTL, AZL, and Full-Throttle locomotives and rolling stock.
The Marklin drawbar is a permanent coupler designed to connect two Marklin locomotives for shut-coupling, and without any slinky issue. For instance, it connects the tender of the Marklin's 81360 steam-powered rotary snowplow with the forepart of the included ii-10-0 Grade 50 locomotive. Used on their TEE, Ice, and other multi-unit of measurement sets, Marklin developed proprietary couplers to non merely close-couple the powered locomotives and cars but to transmit electricity between them. Of course, since these cars aren't meant to couple with whatever other cars or locomotives, it inappreciably matters. Tip: See Improving Locomotive Power Pickup for a way to connect each intermediate car'southward local ability to the cross-train engine-to-engine line, and improve ability pickup for the entire train. These funny square couplers are very common in Due north calibration, but never seen in Z scale until Pro-Z started using them on their Japanese locomotives and rolling stock. What appears to be another MTL-uniform knuckle coupler, these come on Akia's RealZJ locomotives and rolling stock. Much of Micro-Trains early rolling stock (including the F7) was actually produced from tooling created by Nelson Gray, who was the beginning to produce American rolling stock in Z calibration in the late 1970s. But since it'due south an American locomotive and all of my Due north-American rolling stock uses MTL knuckle couplers, I've since replaced the pin with an MTL #905 knuckle coupler. Even Marklin uses a simple pin equally a front coupler on some of their 2-6-0 steam locomotives, such as the 8801, 8894, 8897, 88951, 88952, 8104, 81561, and 81562. Typically, the only remedy is to supervene upon the coupler, or repair information technology by disassembling and rebuilding. Two small-scale weights, placed inside the boxcars, directly above the trucks, will help the cars stay on track; the downside is that your locomotives will exist able to pull fewer cars. If you're similar me and haven't already committed your collection to only i coupler type, you have some cars and locomotives with Marklin couplers, others with MTL couplers, and still others with AZL, or some of the other lesser-known variants.

To make a Marklin train wait better, try replacing simply those couplers that are visible, such every bit the one on the forepart of a locomotive and the i on the dorsum of the last car. Likewise, some American Z Lines locomotives (such as their GP7) include detailed pilots that snap in place of the forepart truck-mounted couplers.
Micro-Trains #901 couplers, with the same D-shaped hole, are drop-in replacements that fit nearly all Marklin locomotives and rolling stock. Using the fine tweezers to hold the two halves together, place the assembly over the pin on the locomotive, as shown in this photograph, making sure the trip pivot points up (or downwards toward the rail, if the engine were upright). Since all Marklin fishhook couplers mountain on the same D-shaped pin, the process in the previous section (for locomotives) applies to Marklin rolling stock (and steam tenders) as well. One time you've removed the sometime coupler, follow the directions for Marklin locomotives in the previous department.
Get-go, all of AZLs brass locomotives, such as the SD45 in this photo, have chassis-mounted couplers. Things commencement getting interesting -- read "infuriating" -- when it comes to the AZL SD70M & SD75I diesel fuel locomotives. If retrofitting a GP35, GP9, or F7 locomotive, go a pair of 004 02 051-M truck side-frames with Marklin-style couplers preinstalled.
For instance, MSRP for a pair of 004 02 051-K truck side-frames is about United states$xiv, whereas two pairs of #908 couplers -- enough for ii locomotives -- retails for nether three bucks. Note that dissimilar types of rolling stock may accept dissimilar mounting types, then you'll demand a variety of new couplers to lucifer each car and locomotive yous've got. Finally, for onetime MTL locomotives with knuckle couplers, yous tin either replace the truck frames entirely with part #949, or you can save some money and just bandy out the couplers with office #905 or #901.
I installed a Micro-Trains fishhook coupler on my American Z Lines E8 locomotive and then it could tow my matching gear up of Marklin Southern Pacific "Daylight" rider cars, and information technology was certainly much easier and cheaper than converting all of the cars to MTL couplers.
Just follow these instructions to retrofit your AZL cars and locomotives, using an MTL #908 fishhook whenever MTL knuckle parts are called for. So far, all of the coupler conversions in this commodity accept dealt with locomotives and rolling stock with couplers already already installed, and then all that was needed was to to find the right parts for the job. Tip: twist drill bits tend to "skate" across metal surfaces, which (autonomously from scarring the chassis) makes it difficult to get a hole precisely where you want it.
Buy the #903 to save a few bucks, get spare parts for repairs, or repair a truck-mounted coupler. If the broken coupler mounts with a screw -- such as a chassis-mounted coupler on a MTL boxcar or a truck-mounted coupler on an F7 or GP35 locomotive -- y'all can bandy out the whole thing for a factory-assembled MTL #905 coupler.
No matter how you continue with each repair, brand certain to relieve any salvageable parts for later repairs. In most circumstances, ane can revive a poorly-running or non-functioning Marklin Z locomotive in under three minutes. In order for an electric locomotive to work, electricity must period uninterrupted from the tracks into the motor, and the rotation of the motor must be freely transferred to the wheels. The friction and the weight of the locomotive helps turn the rotation of wheels into linear motion. The reason is not due to a problem in the locomotive, but rather that some locomotives (such as steam engines) are more susceptible to this problem than others (such as electric and diesel engines). To make any locomotive less susceptible to dirty rails, you tin can amend the electrical pickup - meet Improving Locomotive Ability Pickup for details. Yous'll also, of grade, need to keep your rails and wheels clean - meet Cleaning Z-Calibration Track and Cleaning Locomotive Wheels, respectively, for details.
To go spare parts for your Marklin locomotive, starting time make up one's mind the model number of your engine. The model number is the 4- or 5-digit number on the box that usually starts with an "eight," not the tiny number printed on the side of the locomotive (which is known as the road number, and is simply role of the ornamentation).
You'll undoubtedly see your locomotive or one similar on the first page or two; click through to get the model number.

Nearly Marklin locomotives were released in several different liveries (paint jobs); they're by and large identical otherwise. Tip: As well available is this motor upgrade table, which lists the part numbers for 3-pole motors, 5-pole motors, and respective replacement brushes for nearly all Marklin locomotive models. Marklin and Seuthe both make locomotive oil too, but their applicators are much less user-friendly, and the loftier viscosity of their products is more suitable for HO scale engines.
To assist keep clay from building upwards in your locomotives, store them vertically (on their wheels) so that the oil will drip down to the wheels, rather than accumulate in the motor or locomotive vanquish. While Marklin has produced over 200 different Z-scale locomotives in the most thirty years Z has been effectually, at that place are really but a few basic chassis designs. The first and near common blazon of locomotive chassis is what is used for nigh all diesel and electric engines. They're not interchangeable; if inadvertently switched, the locomotive will run in the incorrect management. Usually, there are access holes in which oil tin can be applied to these gears without taking apart the chassis; the instruction sheet included with your locomotive should bespeak out these access holes.
Most of what applies to "Big Steam Engines," above, applies to these, the smallest Marklin locomotives. Still, they are generally dense and heavy, and can sometimes out-pull locomotives three times their size. The main frame is like most other electric locomotives, with a centrally-mounted motor, a circuit board on superlative, and two pivoting trucks. The German language Crocodile (Marklin 8822, 88221, 88222, 8824), while similar to the Swiss Croc (above), has a chassis design closer to that of standard electric locomotives.
Like an electric locomotive, the motor is mounted centrally and is covered by a circuit board.
And since it merely has two axles, power pickup is easily compromised (see Improving Locomotive Ability Pickup for more than information).
In all the talk of cleaning track, I didn't want to neglect the cleaning of locomotive wheels (drivers). To clean a locomotive, hook the alligator clips to the rail power terminals on your power pack, and turn the throttle all the mode upwardly. Gently press the locomotive up against the brushes, keeping the plastic isolator lined up betwixt the left and right sides. Instead, you lot lay it direct on a section of direct track (information technology must be slightly modified to fit on Z track) and then identify the locomotive on top. Unlike the Micro-Trains cleaner, the brushes are long plenty for any Z-scale locomotive, which makes cleaning much quicker and easier.
Examination-fit the cleaner on the runway; you may take to brand a few adjustments so that it sits level and the brushes brand contact with the runway and, simultaneously, with the wheels of any locomotive placed on tiptop. Note: After using either this or the aforementioned Micro-Trains #236 driver castor, your wheels volition smooth, and your locomotive will run like new. The Micro-Trains unit is cheaper, and works with whatever scale from Z to HO without modification. Two copper contacts power the motor through at to the lowest degree 2 driving wheels, while the rest of the drivers are cleaned by the cherry pad; turn the locomotive 180 degrees to complete cleaning. John Cubbin has come up with a very innovative bootleg locomotive wheel cleaner, based on alcohol-saturated facial cleansing pads instead of brushes. MTL) couplers, shown right, come with all Micro-Trains locomotives and rolling stock (and, until recently, engines and cars from many other Z-calibration manufacturers).