Help Needed To Repair a Truck on a Lionel Hopper

[rlbarnard]

Hi,
Hopefully one of you guys or gals solved a problem like this and can help me.

I recently acquired a Lionel operating Hopper (Great Nothern operating hopper, 6-9384 [manufactured in '81]). One of the trucks fell loose from the car. Looking at it, I discovered the delrin(?) washer fractured into two pieces. A small "donut" of the washer remains around the phillips screw.

According to "Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Trains, 1970-1991 Volume I," the truck is a "Type III standard O sprung truck."

The metal platform to which the truck is mounted has a metal tongue that goes thru a slot in the bottom of the car and is then bent over. (You can see the tongue when you look into the car from the top.) That metal tongue looks too hefty to be bent back without breaking the car so that the platform can be dropped out to mount the truck with a new washer.

Using a small offset screwdriver in end structure of the hopper also looks tough--very little space to work with.

At the moment, I just stuck the truck's upper part back through the hole. The truck stays in but has a lot of lateral movement.

Thanks, ***

[Anonymous]

***,

To remove the truck plate from the car, bend back the tab that is visible from inside the hopper until it stands straight up. You do not need to do anything to the tabs that are visible on the end of the car. Once you have straightened the tab inside the car, pull that end of the truck plate down so that the tab comes out of the car. The end tabs will also be released. As for the trucks, I would replace both trucks with postwar Lionel freight car trucks. I would use these trucks so that the car will be compatible with the postwar coal ramp. The trucks that were on your car would prevent the car from working properly on the postwar coal ramp. The postwar trucks can be attached to the truck plates with retaining rings (671M-22). I would place a washer (2454-8) between each retaining ring and truck plate. After you installed the trucks, you can re-install each truck plate by inserting the end tabs into the end of the car and pushing the straightened tab back up into the slot in the car. Place the car on a hard surface and pu***he straightened tabs back down. You can use your thumb to pu***he tab down. Do not be afraid to do this project, it is easier than it sounds.

Jim Trumpie

[phillyreading]

Welcome to the forum, the only help for that time period equipment is to replace the original truck assembly with the O gauge replacement trucks made by Lionel. Remove the rivot by drilling it out then replace the whole truck assemblty, any repair to it is just going to come back on you in a few months as MPC made cheap products under the Lionel name.
Lee F.