# Kadees on RDCs Question



## Ward H (Jan 5, 2008)

Greg or anyone,
I reviewed Greg's site on installing Kadees on the RDC. He used a 907 which has the 831 gear box. Kadee recomends the 789 for the RDC which has the same gear box as the 907. (it appears)

I tried installing the 789s. The problem is the gear box hits the frame of the opening and the mounting tang does not go far enough back to allow putting a screw into the mounting post. It looks like I need to drill a new hole right on the rear edge, which does not leave much plastic left. 

Am I doing something wrong? I would rather not cut the RDC.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

You drill a new hole in the draft gear, where the red dot is:










The red dot is where you drill the new hole and use the original Aristo Screw. 

This is on my site.

Greg


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

I did it two other ways, neither was really easy, but both used 831's 

http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips9/rdc_tips.html


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## Ward H (Jan 5, 2008)

Greg, are you mounting the coupler to the tang of the original AC coupler or to the post? When the gear box is tight against the pilot frame, I would have to drill the dimple on the other side of the hole from your red dot so the screw would go into the post. 
It looks like your red dot is about .14" back from the edge of the gear box. The coupler mounting post is about .48" back from the front side of the pilot.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I removed the Aristo coupler entirely.


Drill the hole in the Kadee where the red spot is (it is slightly off center). The dimple (recess) is where the red spot is. 


Stick the screw through the hole and back into the original Aristo post. I'm not understanding the confusion. 











Regards, Greg


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## Bill Swindell (Jan 2, 2008)

I removed all of the original stuff and built this platform with styrene plastic. I then mounted an 821 coupler to the plastic.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Well it looks like the answer was plain and simple to do the conversion. Later RJD


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## Ward H (Jan 5, 2008)

Plain and simple it was. I was just looking at it wrong. Duh! 

Bill, I got couplers installed but thanks for the photo. I like the idea of used ribbong cable instead of seperate wires. Looks easier to manage.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Glad it worked out Ward! 

If you have suggestions to make my site more clear, just drop me an email! 

Regards, Greg


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## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

When aligning Kadee couplers of the traditional types (e.g. 789, 830, etc.) with the newer generation AAR "E" types (e.g. 907, 906, etc.) - strive to get their horizontal casting (mold) seams to line up. 

Shown below is the newer Kadee 980 track to coupler height gauge (on the left) coupled with the traditional Kadee 880 gauge (on the right). As can be seen the seam lines line-up for both new and traditional Kadee couplers. Thus, the newer "E" generation coupler, being somewhat taller, is equidistant above and below the traditional coupler.










-Ted


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, on my site, where I have that picture, I note it's not exactly right. 

I now have 2 kadee gauges like you do Ted, with one of each type. 

I knew you would catch me Ted ha ha! 

Greg


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## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

Greg, 

I caught the misalignment right away since I have been upgrading all my cars and locos with Kadees; There must be well over a hundred done by now. I look at these coupler alignments almost on daily basis for each car I do - it being burned into memory. 

Is there room on the RDC to tweak the coupler height at the coupler box shank using washers, or would one have to remove some material from the coupler box shank itself to get a better coupler alignment with the gauge? 

-Ted


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Since it is only a post, just trimming the post a bit will be fine. 

I think I may do something better in the future, I want to study the side travel required. I might use the Kadee "swivel" arrangement. I would really prefer to have it fill the "entrance" better. 

The only time I will use it is when it is coupled to the RDC-1, but it seems that this was the most typical lashup on the Santa Fe! 

Greg


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## Santafe 2343 (Jan 2, 2008)

*Greg,*
* I found 1 picture showing Santa Fe with 3 RDC's running together, They look real cool that way. Thanks, Rex *
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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Would love to see the picture Rex. As far as I can tell, Santa Fe only had 2 RDC-1's and rebuilt one with a baggage compartment. Road numbers m-191 and m-192, 

Try that link again? 

Greg


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