The collapsing of the power pick-up springs is one of the main "wrinkles" that had to be addressed when the Climax first came out. I also had my springs collapse and tried to stretch them out to no avail. When I had my Climax fitted with an RCS r/c battery installation I no longer needed them but Dave Goodson recommended using the springs from Kadee couplers as replacements as the tension in the original ones that have collapsed will have been irrepairably weakened.