AMS COACH REPAIR Ideas
- Thread starter nico
- Start date
johnsaintjim said:nico said:
Err yes, good idea.
I must say I thought it was a bit strange for a man who could build a railway like yours not to have a few ideas about how to fix the broken coupling...
i like to plenty of ideas Graham,to be sure to be sure
I didnt had the same problem, but nearly:
I mounted Kaddees on my coaches, and that is nearly the same problem to solve.
As some people said, the best way is to roughen up the inner side of this little green palsticbox (where your screwpile broke off), fill it with some 2 components (epoxy) filler, best with some fiber glas in (for car repairings).
Then with making it even, u have the best platform to mount something in or on.
It works, i tried it.
What did u do for the bad running performance of the coaches?
regs
Frank
I mounted Kaddees on my coaches, and that is nearly the same problem to solve.
As some people said, the best way is to roughen up the inner side of this little green palsticbox (where your screwpile broke off), fill it with some 2 components (epoxy) filler, best with some fiber glas in (for car repairings).
Then with making it even, u have the best platform to mount something in or on.
It works, i tried it.
What did u do for the bad running performance of the coaches?
regs
Frank
coyote97 said:
bad running performance of the coaches? please enlighten me Frank as i have not run them yet
I would roughen up the edges of the box and the post that is still attached to the coupler. Fill the box on the underside of the coach with epxoy. Place the coupling and post in the correct position on the coach while the epoxy is still liquid. Effectively casting a new socket around the post attached to the coupling. Might have to make a 'dam' on the inboard end of the box that you are pouring the epoxy into.
hi Nico,
oh the heck...now i have onemore time to search for the words......so be patient and full of phantasy...
The coaches have "sliding gears", what would not be of any interest, because most other cars have, too.
But with the coaches, the drilling for the axles is not directly in the axle-gearbox. there is a sort of sleeve or bushing between.
For this sleeve,the drilling in the axlebox is MUCH too big.
Wouldnt be a problem though.....but the axles themselves are a bit to short to give all a proper direction. the ends of the axles are not deep enough in the sleeves.
The sleeves tend to "cant" or "tilt" and the axle gets some kind of clamp.
That effect is tricky:
when u lift the car and turn it over, the axles run smooth and fine.
Even when u lift it just to turn the axles, they run fine.
But everytime the weight of the coach (what is not too less.....) comes on the toggling sleeves, the moving gets clamped. Not completely, just a bit like braking.
e.g. my coaches dont move themselves on a 3% incline!!!!! The hard it is for the locos to pull them up!
I changed the axle-ends of one coach from 4mm to 3mm and put mini-ballbearings on. The axle-boxes are THAT instable, that sometimes i loose an axle of this car..... the axles themselves werent longer because of the ballbearing!
But running is that fine then! Used to have no movement at all, i just put the car on a place where i thought it should be even. It took a long starting along a 4% incline and made the following 1200mm radius-curve on the outer wheels, ran through an even, 6m long station and bumped into the trackend.
All critical trackpoints with an about 1m freefall on concrete in case of derailment.
Nothing happened...all is fine.
I decided to go in, take a coffee and become a nervous breackdown.
Frank
P.S.: my solution with the ballbearings isnt very good....but at least, it IS one!
oh the heck...now i have onemore time to search for the words......so be patient and full of phantasy...
The coaches have "sliding gears", what would not be of any interest, because most other cars have, too.
But with the coaches, the drilling for the axles is not directly in the axle-gearbox. there is a sort of sleeve or bushing between.
For this sleeve,the drilling in the axlebox is MUCH too big.
Wouldnt be a problem though.....but the axles themselves are a bit to short to give all a proper direction. the ends of the axles are not deep enough in the sleeves.
The sleeves tend to "cant" or "tilt" and the axle gets some kind of clamp.
That effect is tricky:
when u lift the car and turn it over, the axles run smooth and fine.
Even when u lift it just to turn the axles, they run fine.
But everytime the weight of the coach (what is not too less.....) comes on the toggling sleeves, the moving gets clamped. Not completely, just a bit like braking.
e.g. my coaches dont move themselves on a 3% incline!!!!! The hard it is for the locos to pull them up!
I changed the axle-ends of one coach from 4mm to 3mm and put mini-ballbearings on. The axle-boxes are THAT instable, that sometimes i loose an axle of this car.....
the axles themselves werent longer because of the ballbearing! But running is that fine then! Used to have no movement at all, i just put the car on a place where i thought it should be even. It took a long starting along a 4% incline and made the following 1200mm radius-curve on the outer wheels, ran through an even, 6m long station and bumped into the trackend.
All critical trackpoints with an about 1m freefall on concrete in case of derailment.
Nothing happened...all is fine.
I decided to go in, take a coffee and become a nervous breackdown.
Frank
P.S.: my solution with the ballbearings isnt very good....but at least, it IS one!
Hi Nico,
One reason for the drag these coaches have when running is that AMS decided to add wiper contacts to both bogies for powering the lights (there are 4 grain of wheat bulbs in the clerestory).
These wipers produce a lot of drag, you can remove them, and either add LED lighting strips or leave the bulbs there and add a box on the chassis for a 9volt (rectangular) battery to power the lights instead, add a slide switch at the same time. This could also be placed in the toilet compartment but a charging jack is then needed as the battery is in this method, hidden.
No connection with them but T&M models (01270 216200) make some LED light kits, they also have an e-bay site, and I am sure others will make them as well.
The coaches will come apart, there are 4 screws per side that hold the body & roof onto the chassis and floor units; be careful of the wires going to the bogie wiper units when taking them apart. They will need a bit of brute force as the floor (etc) unit slots into a groove on the inside of the body - small screwdrivers help in keeping the sides out of the groove on the inside of the sides, from sneaking back to the floor units, sounds a bit complicated to say the least, IF taking them apart gently tease the ends free, they are tight, but will come loose, then from the centre tweak the sides off that groove and use small scrtewdrivers or pieces of 1 or 1.5mm scarp plastic to keep it out, moving towards the ends, where it will become more difficult to move it, a small amount of detergent will help it to slip outwards, and don't forget to wipe it off when free.
The sides and ends can be unscrewed to their respective parts. Also a UK company (Rio Grande Models (UK) make laser cut replacement sides: they are about £75 a set and are direct replacements.
Their website is at http://sites.google.com/site/riograndemodelsuk no connection with them though I do have a set of sides, which for my early railroad purposes will need a couple of windows cut into them. For c.1900 or so onwards they are correct - mine will be c. 1880, and thus need the change/extra.
extra details have added to original reply, by Peter Bunce..
Yours Peter
One reason for the drag these coaches have when running is that AMS decided to add wiper contacts to both bogies for powering the lights (there are 4 grain of wheat bulbs in the clerestory).
These wipers produce a lot of drag, you can remove them, and either add LED lighting strips or leave the bulbs there and add a box on the chassis for a 9volt (rectangular) battery to power the lights instead, add a slide switch at the same time. This could also be placed in the toilet compartment but a charging jack is then needed as the battery is in this method, hidden.
No connection with them but T&M models (01270 216200) make some LED light kits, they also have an e-bay site, and I am sure others will make them as well.
The coaches will come apart, there are 4 screws per side that hold the body & roof onto the chassis and floor units; be careful of the wires going to the bogie wiper units when taking them apart. They will need a bit of brute force as the floor (etc) unit slots into a groove on the inside of the body - small screwdrivers help in keeping the sides out of the groove on the inside of the sides, from sneaking back to the floor units, sounds a bit complicated to say the least, IF taking them apart gently tease the ends free, they are tight, but will come loose, then from the centre tweak the sides off that groove and use small scrtewdrivers or pieces of 1 or 1.5mm scarp plastic to keep it out, moving towards the ends, where it will become more difficult to move it, a small amount of detergent will help it to slip outwards, and don't forget to wipe it off when free.
The sides and ends can be unscrewed to their respective parts. Also a UK company (Rio Grande Models (UK) make laser cut replacement sides: they are about £75 a set and are direct replacements.
Their website is at http://sites.google.com/site/riograndemodelsuk no connection with them though I do have a set of sides, which for my early railroad purposes will need a couple of windows cut into them. For c.1900 or so onwards they are correct - mine will be c. 1880, and thus need the change/extra.
extra details have added to original reply, by Peter Bunce..
Yours Peter
Rhinochugger said:funandtrains said:
Not had any problem with my AMS knuckles - yet
where can i get them online?????
A slight variation on the previous good ideas you may wish to try. Glue the broken mounting back in place with a solvent adhesive such as "Mek Pac" or EMA " Plasweld" http://www.ema-models.co.uk/products/04303-plastic-weld-cement-ml.html
Once set you could reinforce the repair with epoxy putty rather than cast a block of epoxy resin in situ.
Once set you could reinforce the repair with epoxy putty rather than cast a block of epoxy resin in situ.
nico said:Rhinochugger said:funandtrains said:
Not had any problem with my AMS knuckles - yet
where can i get them online?????
I don't know anywhere that advertises them on their website Nico. The two main stockists of AMS wagons are Back2Bay6 and Kent Garden Rail.
Andrew at Garden Railway Centres (Cheltenham) also lists AMS wagons on his website, but is pretty low on stock right now.
You'll have to ring them in da morning if they're not snowbound.
Nico,
Both of these links point to 1:20.3 articles that talked about the same problem you are having - I think that if you follow the links in the articles there are various ways shown on how to fix this. (I did what Wayne Spence did on my own AMS cars)
http://120pointme.blogspot.com/2008/02/and-were-nice-people-too.html
http://120pointme.blogspot.com/2008/02/quick-update.html (this is the link to the method I used)
Both of these links point to 1:20.3 articles that talked about the same problem you are having - I think that if you follow the links in the articles there are various ways shown on how to fix this. (I did what Wayne Spence did on my own AMS cars)
http://120pointme.blogspot.com/2008/02/and-were-nice-people-too.html
http://120pointme.blogspot.com/2008/02/quick-update.html (this is the link to the method I used)