I am sure many folks have dealt with this issue in the past, it is not a new or surprising issue. I have an old Con Cor car that I recently fitted with new trucks. The bushings did not fit well and needed modified to fit the hole and after installation the car leans to one side. Now I need to get this car rolling flat and at the very least -semi-true.
Somehow one or both of the bushings might not be perpendicular. (Went in at a very slight angle.) Also check that they are flush in the carbody bolster.
I think the older Con-cor trucks had a 2-prong pin that clipped inside the hole thru the truck, was loose fitting from the factory?
You may also want to check the underbody of the car and make sure it is flush, straight, and seated correctly in the car body. I've had that happen and it's easy to do and not always noticeable. Double check and make sure all the wheelsets are seated properly as well. It may just be the picture but the truck to the right looks a little different than the one to the left. May be none of those but worth checking.
What did you do to modify the bushings.....normally the shoulder on the bushing keeps things square if you pushed the bushings in till they bottom out. Next question would be are the pins pushed in till they bottom out........otherwise there will be play which could allow the car to lean. Kind of obvious, but is the weight centered? And is the shell on evenly.......done that more than once myself.
Bushings wouldn't fit, not even close. I took a sharp razor and gently shaved the bushings back a bit until I could press them in.
It has been too many years- I believe those bushings were originally intended for use with converting Con-Cor cars to what was then "Kadee", now known as "Micro-Trains". As already noted the early Con-Cor cars did not use an actual pin, but it was a clip type of design. The hole in the Con-Cor car body bolster was quite large. so those bushings did not need modification. This was back during the very early 1970's. Myself, I converted a bunch of Con-Cor cars, way back then....
The bushings definitely needed a mod. There was no way they where going to fit in otherwise, and yes the hole is quite large, hence the need of a bushing so the roller bearing pins can fit in after removing the old knucklers off the Con-Cor. The Con-Cor design is as stated by others, but that has no bearing on the problem I was having on conversion and how the bushing fit into the preexisting hole. The only other way to fit the bushing into the hole on this car would have required drilling the hole slightly larger, but making a mistake widening the hole would have been a huge headache. Slightly shaving the bushings was a safer bet and worked fine. I will pull the trucks this weekend and make sure I have no burs and the bushing is perfectly flat.
A quick update: I solved the problem by swapping the plastic wheels that came with the roller bearing kit for some metal wheels I had on an old car. It worked like a charm. The car is now rolling nice and flat.
In years past, sometimes I'd just try to put the M-T frame and all under an old car that I liked. Trim a little to fit, but usually got it to work! "Great" you got this old GN car running good!
Hi I buy bulk sets of Microtrains trucks with couplers. Not cheap, but they include multiple parts to fit into most manufacturers cars. And, bonus- all of the coupler heights are the same.
