How to repair a broken Truck rivet?

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It was a lose - lose Sunday evening.

I had soldered a loose wire on a 2046w Tender. Putting it back in service, it totally shorted the track power. Examination convinced me that the spring wound shaft that the roller is attached to is contacting the frame of the truck assembly, causing the short.

I tried to bend the truck frame to increase the clearance, to match the other truck. This resulted in the truck seperating from the body frame of the tender at the rivet. I'm not sure if I actually bent the frame enough to create the neccesary clearance, but how do I replace the rivet which hold the truck to the tender frame? Do I need a special rivet tool? Must I dissassemble the truck? Can I substitute a certain screw washer and nut? Must I seek out someone with a special Lionel tool?

Help please!

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The lack of any response in two days time leads me to conclude that either (1) this problem has no known solution (hard to believe), or (2) the solution is so simple and obvious that no one thought it worth a reply, or (3) no one understood what I was looking for.

...still looking for help with this.

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Yeah, I know, there's another possibility, but I don't want to go there.

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[rtraincollector]

Okay first pics of the problem might help some and second theres a couple of ways of doing a rivet. you can get new ones from jeff at www.ttender.com and a few other places but the problem sounds like you might have made the hole a wee bit to big now but don't get upset as theres a cure for that also. 1st get the area that had the rivet init as flat as you can then when you have new rivet ( hopefully you have cut old one off with a dremel or something) yon need to find something like center punch. okay lets say the hole is to big to hold head of rivet good find a small flat washer with hole big enough for rivet but not to big for the head ( also the thinner the better as long as its metal) and this will give you a little bigger head. now put rivet thru and putting center punch place it on a sturdy table and place the end of the rivet which you placed thru the frame and the truck on the center punch and bang the other end of the rivet with a small hamer enough to spread the end of the rivet the center punch is centered on you may have to do this a couple of times.

Other option ( now I haven't seen this for a while but there was a guy selling what looked like a gear puller that was good for doing rivets.

heres something I found on ebay that looks like it would work good and at least you would have something for in the future http://cgi.ebay.com/EYELET-RIVET-TOOL-3-TIPS-SMALL-MED-AND-LARGE-MARX-/380316272350?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item588c9dc6de

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Thanks for the reply.

I don't think I enlarged the hole, seems like the rivet just failed. If I get a new rivet, will I need a special rivet spreading tool like those Marx tools shown on the e-bay site? Or will just a small ballpean hammer do?

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[rtraincollector]

you'llneedsomething to spread the end of the rivet maybe some of the others can give you some ideas the ballpean hamer is good for hitting the head but to spread the other end if you have a center punch that would do great should be able to get one at hd/lowes for a few dollars or even maybe walleyworld might have one cheap or a dollar stor like dollar general doesn't have to be anything great.

[cwburfle]

Generally, 2046W tenders have trucks that are mounted by CP-58 pivot studs.  These studs are mounted to the truck via a star clincher. The stud is then inserted into the hole in the tender frame, and held in place with a horse shoe washer.
If you bent the truck enough to break off the stud, it is probably fairly misshapen now.
IMHO, your best bet is to purchase a replacement PT-1 basic truck, and move your pickup assembly over, or purchase an entire truck with the pickup assembly.

As far as your original problem goes:
If the pickup roller rivet was hitting the truck body, the first thing to check would be whether the pickup assembly plate is tightly crimped to the axles.
I would also look for bent axles, or a distorted truck frame.
Finally, sometimes the roller rivet isn't clinched tight enough, making the rivet a bit too long.
Adjusting the clinch is easy with the right tools. I am not certain how I would do it without them.
All that written, sometimes folks just put a little electrical tape on the truck where the rivet hits. That will prevent a short.