I broke the power bogie of my E351 can it be fixed?

[bc6]

I was trying to disassemble it to see if it was DCC friendly and I guess I was a bit rough with it and broke a pin that holds the bogey in the chassis. It doesn't look like it can be repaired but I figure Id ask here. There are no replacements available Ive looked on Hobby Search and Plaza Japan this is the part number https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10820630

 

 

 

[disturbman]

You are out of luck. The part is also not on YJA, which means they are likely no residual stock available for you. I think your only solution at the moment is to see if a motor car is available on YJA. I don't think Kato made these in a way that you can just swap the parts around. Otherwise, I would have recommended that, find a similarly constructed bogie and swap the broken part.

[bc6]

Those sound like good suggestions thanks for replying. 

[Guest]

I’d certainly give repair a try.  Drill out the remainder and insert and glue a pin/peg/screw of matching size.

[bc6]

Bob you must have been reading my mind, Ive been contemplating my strategy to do exactly that. 

[Guest]

What’s the diameter of that pin?

[bill937ca]

Use a pin vise.

[railsquid]

I was trying to disassemble my older model to replace the wheelsets with blackened ones, but couldn't for the life of me work out how to remove the bogies without breaking those pins. I couldn't find any hints on the (Japanese) internet either, just reports of similar breakages...

[cteno4]

Bc if you don’t have some micro drills I can send you some in the 0.5-1.5mm range as I have a few dozen of each mm size to use in a pin vise.

 

jeff

[bc6]

Bob Im going to measure it later on today.

bill that what Im going to try.

railsquid that sounds like a bad design flaw to me.

cteno Im actually going to order a set thanks for the offer. 

[disturbman]

That’s also a possibility, but drilling small holes in small pieces of plastic can be quite impressive and nerve wrecking.

 

Are the plastic rods available good enough for that job? I imagine using metal could potentially lead to other damages on the chassis.

[bc6]

Metal is the way to go on this one I wouldn't use anything else. 

[cteno4]

Make sure to sand the end well to a nice smooth round like the plastic or it will hang up going into the chassis and could rip out the metal rod if it really gets stuck. Single pin design does put a huge amount of stress on a very small cross section. Usually the truck holding bit is a longer, larger cross section rectangular piece. Never had any of those break when removing a truck. Does the collar on the chassis where the truck goes in flex much? Wondering if they made it more flexible on this model to push truck over on far side of collar to give some to let the pin pass on the other side as you lever it out.

 

I’ve never liked the design where you have to lever out the truck. Never broken one and I’ve probably done it a few hundred times over the decades, but I’m always thinking this will be the first time!
 

I love the old minitrix design where they have a metal pin that goes all the way thru the truck (that is also the axle of the top truck gear) that you just push through with a needle and truck falls out. Never seen that on any Japanese trains though.

 

jeff

[railsquid]

19 hours ago, bc6 said:

railsquid that sounds like a bad design flaw to me.

 

6 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Single pin design does put a huge amount of stress on a very small cross section.

 

It's like that to facilitate the E351 body tilt mechanism. Dunno if it's been improved on in the retooled version.

[bc6]

Thanks railsquid that makes sense, Retooled version you say thank you.