I picked up 7 Bachman Heavyweight passenger cars at a garage sale.
They are equipped with the old hook-horn couplers. Does anyone know what size Kadee or other brand of coupler will fit the existing coupler pockets?
Thanks
Franco
When in doubt, nmber 5's.
Gene
Check Kadee's website, they have conversion charts
Franco,
A question about the cars.....are the couplers mounted in coupler boxes that are mounted to the body but pivot with the trucks? If so, besides installing new couplers, I strongly suggest that you do away with the pivoting aspect of the coupler boxes unless you are running on radii less than 26 inches. That pivot is accomplished by an "arm" located inside the car. The problem with the pivot is that the box has a tendency to sage thus causing coupler mismatches, both high and low.
As for the coupler, the Kadee 5 will work but I suggest the Kadee 148 which is the Kadee 5 with the wire "whiskers" attached to the shank of the coupler, thus negating the need to use the brass centering plate in the coupler box.
Franco,
You can (and should) remove the swivel box as ebtbob recommends. I would however recomend the #36 Kadee coupler, It has a longer shank that will allow you to mount it futher back from the end of the car but it will allow a wider coupler swing thus allowing the cars to go around sharper curves than the #5 or #148. The desgin of the the #36 coupler box allows for height ajustment and will eliminate the need for spacers to get the correct coupler height which you will need if you use #5 or #148.
I use this coupler on all my passenger cars and convert them to American Limited working diaphragms. I can e-mail you data on this if you are interested.
Sheldon