While running the car-carriers last time, I realised a problem with the coupler heights being off by 1/4"
I had changed the couplers from truck-mount to body-mount but they were too high to marry with my Kaydee couplers. I did not want to replace the given coupler arm with a Kaydee coupler because I had some 10 foot switches and radius on my layout and I like the long sweeping arms. I decided to figure out a way to make an adapter to lower the coupler arm to the correct height. Using some old fashion clothes pegs and discarded 1/4" wood strapping (Our local Home Depot throws away strapping from wood shipping.)
Using the rounded end of the coupling arm, I traced out the rounded tappered shape on it that fits inside the coupling holder.
The hole should be drilled out first while the wood is at it's strongest. Pre-drill a smaller hole before using a 15/32" bit to make the final size.
Using a scroll saw cut out the shape the best you can.
By sanding and fitting into the coupling holder, work the piece down until it matches. The piece should be in 2 3/4" (7cm) in length.
One side of the hole needs to be sanded down for the coupler arm ring offset.
The sides might need to be sanded to fit a balsa tongue depressor used a flanges to hold the coupler return springs. The tongue depressors should be cut and glued high enough to catch the coupler return springs.
The second piece we are making is the pivot extender out of a old clothes peg. Using a sander, I worked down the knob into a cylinder that tightly fits inside the existing pivot hole.
Cutting the cylinder to length (depth of the pivot hole), define the transistion of the cylinder diameters with a wood file.
The outside needs to be lightly sanded to fit inside the hole of the coupler arm.
Cutting the bigger cylinder to length (depth of coupler arm hole).
The finished piece should look like this.
Everything should fit together like this.
Reverse the metal plate and screw down.
I hope if you had the same problem as me with coupler heights that this blog entry helped. I did not include any dimensions because everything needs to be custom-made and fitted using trial and error.
