Athearn Impack Spine Car Coupler Replacement

[ATSFGuy]

Hello all,

I recently acquired a deceased club member's collection. He had about 12-15 Athearn weathered ATSF Impacks, I took one out of the box to look at and saw the spring is missing from the metal kadee couplers. All of the cars have metal couplers and metal wheels. They're the old bluebox kits. The trailer hitches are all intact.

Does anyone out there have cars like this? If so what couplers should I use? Or is the coupler fine without the spring?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mbinsewi]

I used to have a bunch of those, if I remember correctly, I used the #148 whisker coupler.

You can also replace the spring.

Mike.

[ATSFGuy]

I have the car upside-down on a rubber foam craddle, I saw a bronze piece inside the coupler box. Which couplers need this and which do not?

 

[ATSFGuy]

Thanks for all the replies guys. 

I'll add this infromation to my notes titled "HO Scale Replacement Couplers".

I will also see if I have a few spare Kadee #5's on my workbench. An update will follow.