Link here:

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/mrh-202510-october-2025-13731986

Jon

@geoffc

thank you for the great tip - cotton and fine tweezers/scalpel seems to be the way to go

I fear superglue might impinge on the movement of the spring although a small amount of removeable blutack might do a similar job

Will try later (also got 4 Dapol Voyager coaches that need similar spring coupling repairs) and report back!

I always make a loop of cotton through one eye and then put a square of masking tape on the other end of the cotton, this makes it easier to find if the spring flies off into space.
I then loop one end of the spring over one hook and I can pull the spring with the cotton over the other hook teasing it in position with a scalpel blade taking care not to cut the cotton.
When it is hooked into position just cut the cotton and gently pull the cotton out.

Geoff

Hook one end of the spring in place. Hold it there with some masking tape or, for a more permanent solution, a dab of glue (as suggested above).

 

Yeah, I saw that today. Funnily enough I didn't mind Kiss. They were huge here for a while.

RIP Space Ace

KISS was the first band I ever went to see - 1980 at Deeside Leisure Centre.
It was an ice rink covered with a carpet and my feet were freezing at the end of the night.

Just thinking aloud - would supergluing one end of the spring to one hook before attempting to get it over the second hook work?

Thanks both.

I have those tweezers somewhere!

Yup, use the finest tweezers you can find,  hook the spring to the coupling pocket (the moving part) first, retain it with a finger while you then ease the spring onto the hook on the underbody.

I have a set of Parkside tweezers including very fine tipped straight and angled ends, very useful

 

Definitely sounds like someone's fiddled with your 350 then, they do have couplings at the outer ends, bogie mounted long shank NEMs; there's literally a photo of one you've posted above.

The motor bogie also has an NEM pocket. The other 5 bogies do not have couplings at all, they use body-mounted kinematic mounts per the spring you've lost.