Hello all,

I am keen on Telex couplers and have been converting some of my locos. with the Marklin 117993 retro fittable Telex coupler. However, I have found significant problems with a very high failure rate with this coupler in that a lot of them lets go of towed carriages - I have written a separate post on this titled 'Marklin 117993 retro fit Telex coupler - Operating problems with Marklin 117993 retro-fit Telex coupler'.

I came across this alternative Telex coupler from Roco - the Roco 125308. I was wondering if anyone has tried this and whether it is compatible with Marklin couplers and whether it works well in practise.

I will be grateful for any advise. Many thanks.


Bennett.

Hi Bennet

I'm in a similar Situation than you

On my Koef 3 both sides did not work well
and on my 117993 kit only half work ...

So I have a failure rate of 75 %
Anyhow I fixed them by opening the Telex , not easy and introduced the tap to remove the space bewteen the solenoide and the body
now all 3 are working fine

And I aslo purcahsed the Roco for test .. but I need to receive a new XIMo decoder and then I will test

Have a great day

Francois

My experience is that most couplers will work OK if you stick to the same type. I have never had Marklin close couplers uncoupling from Marklin close couplers, or failing to couple, but I have had plenty of problems with non-matching types.

My feeling about the new types of Telex couplers is that they are fine for shunting but not for pulling long trains. I notice that mostly Marklin fit them onto shunting locos, so that's OK.

The older types were much more robust, but could not be retro-fitted easily

Thanks to you all for your advise and information.

RayF, yes my forum name is solentgreen. I initiated another thread on the problems I experienced with faulty 117993 couplers which lets go of towed carriages - see link below:-

https://www.marklin-user...o-fit-Telex-coupler.aspx

With respect to your view that these new type of couplers are designed to be for shunting only but not for pulling long carriages, I beg to differ. The reason is that I bought a total of 13 units of 117993 and I discovered that half of them works fine and will tow any length of carriages totally reliably. The others unfortunately lets go of carriages when towing, and it does not matter on the length of carriages towed. If you read through the above thread entirely and download the videos. you will see this. I would say that these faulty couplers cannot be relied upon even to do shunting as it can let go within very short distances when towing. Also, the fact that half of the 117993s I have work perfectly and reliably show that this has to be an issue of faulty production affecting certain 117993s.

Francois, thank you also for replying. Good to know I have company on owning lots of faulty 117993s! Actually, you will see from the above thread that we have company in this regard.

However Francois, I am most interested in that you are able to fix your faulty 117993s. I have some 6 units of faulty 117993s and I would love to know how to fix them. You mentioned opening them up. I have looked closely at a 117993 and I think the only way one can open them up is by taking the top metal flap off and then prising open the cylinder in the middle? Am I right in this? I have attached a close-up photo of the 117993 with the top flap eased up to show the cylinder.
Also, can you please elaborate on how you remove the space between the solenoid and the body? Did you put some packing material between the solenoid and the walls of the cylinder holder? I will be very grateful for you advise here, thank you.

Lastly, I will also be buying a couple of Roco 125308 Telex couplers to try out. I will certainly update you all when they arrive and I have had a chance to test them.


Bennett.

Hi Bennett

Let me share with you this link :

http://www.stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=73011

I don't if you read german but at laest if you go thru the discussing you will see pictures
study them the tricky part is to open the telex with small cutter

very carefully : since inside you have the solenoide with a small flexible PCB , if the solenoide connection will break with the PCB , they it's difficult resolder again
once I have done but i have Professional Equipement and it was very hard

so if you succeded to separate like on the pictures , you need to fill out with tape the hole which hold the solenoide (0.1 mm 2 times) now rebuilt the telex
the solenoide sits more tighten , and the thing is working reliable.

Tell me if this clear for you
again if you separate the telex without damage 90% of the job is done

Francois

Hi Francois,
Thank you so very much for the information you provided. You are right that I regrettably do not know the German language but as the information is so useful, I used online translation sites to work through the whole thread. Thank you again.
With this knowledge, I will certainly try to open up a faulty 117993 to try the repair; even if it may not be successful, it will be good to understand the inside working of it.
One thing, all the contributors to that thread spoke only of the problem of the pin not dropping down after decoupling is actuated so that coupling is not possible. As mentioned, I bought a total of 13 units of these 117993 and only one of the 13 had this problem of the pin sticking in the up position. With this one, the first thing I tried was to apply a little bit of WD40 with a toothpick onto the pin but this did not help in my case.
Of the remaining 12 units of 117993, my main problem is that 6 of them has this other problem of letting go of towed carriages. All these 6 couple and uncouple properly; that is the pin drops freely after uncoupling. Its just that it releases towed carriages at random with no uncoupling signal sent to the 117993. I have done a fair bit of observation and what happens with these 6 faulty 117993s is that after coupling to carriages, and with the pin dropped down to the coupled position (I will even pull on the carriages to check that it is securely coupled), then with the loco. pulling the carriages, after 10 seconds or so, I can see that the pulling tension is causing the pin to slowly work itself up to the top. Soon, the towed trains are released unintentionally. As you can imagine, this can cause collisions so is a significant problem.
Do you know whether the solution of packing the excess space between the solenoid and the body with tape will also solve this problem of unintentional release? I will be most grateful if you can let me know.
By the way, if you read my other thread on this subject, you will know that I am in correspondence with Marklin Service on this issue of poor 117993 production quality. Its good to know that a number of members of the Stummiforum agree that the problem is one of poor control of manufacturing tolerances. I will certainly keep you all posted on Marklin's response to my emails.
Thank you again Francois for all your advise & information; it is much appreciated.


Bennett.

Hello John,
Thanks for the advise ref Roco Telex coupler's disadvantage with it picking up stray pieces of metal & fouling after a while; I presume this is due to the magnetic field it creates around itself?
Re your point that the coupler is alright if you use the same coupling, are you referring to the Roco Telex or the Marklin 117993 Telex?


Bennett.

SUCCESS! With the Stummiforum information which Francois kindly directed me to, I managed to open up one of my faulty 117993 Telex couplers (ones that lets go of towed carriages) and line the inside of the solenoid cylinder with insulating tape so the solenoid fits snugly and after re-assembly, it works faultlessly! So this method of repair works for both 117993s where the decoupling pin sticks & does not drop and also where it lets go of towed carriages, as in my case. And as I have a total of 7 units of faulty 117993s, to learn of this fix is really good news. Thanks again Francois.

By the way, I took a photo of the coil and gasket assembly and this is attached. As pointed out by Patrick on the Stummiforum thread, you really have to take care when you remove the coil to avoid breaking the wires. In my case, after carefully prising off the bottom cover with a cutter blade, I used a toothpick to push through the hole at the other side (i.e. the top of the the coupler) and this ease the coil assembly out together with the gasket and connecting wires. The photo is taken after the two are separated.

And to clarify ref the unwanted decoupling affecting my 117993s, I would first confirm that this happens even when coupled with Marklin close couplers. I know and accept that the older Relex couplers do not work with 117993s (it lets go the first time the train goes over a crossing or any uneveness in the track).

By the way, you are absolutely right that the reason why the pin moves up in my faulty units is due to the excess space & clearance in the cylinder such that the coil and pin can move around. What happens is that the variable backward & sideways pull on the 117993's coupling bar as carriages are towed causes the coil and pin to shift around inside the cylinder & it eventually works the pin upward until the coupling bar lets go. And as I do not connect the uncoupling wires to the decoder when I am testing the 117993, there is no possibility that the uncoupling is due to the coil being activated by an unwanted signal or other voltage.

Anyway, thanks again Francois for informing me of this repair. You've put my project to equip my locos. with 117993s "back on track", if you will excuse the pun!


Bennett.

Hi all,

Or: http://www.tec4trains.de

Dr D

Hi!

Roco's Universal coupler is compatible with Märklin's close coupler, but couples more easily. In my experience coupling works better also when coupling Roco with Märklin.
They do not couple in curves though (neither do Märklin's).

Coupling a Roco Universal coupler with a Märklin Relex coupler will work for some cars, but fail for others.

Roco

Hi all,

Iam in progress of changing my Marklin close couplers with Roco universal couplers (40395) on my freight wagons.

For those Marklin wagons that those not have a NEM pocket, but e.g. guide mechanisms, how do you install a Roco universal coupler?

Came across these types, but not sure if they will e.g. fit on older types goods wagon?

http://modellbahnmarkt24...d34876aab9a8b25957238e19

Thanks in advance!

Brgds Lasse