https://www.micromark.com/Trip-Pin-Bending-Plier-N-Scale?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIldmR0p-d_QIVwxbUAR11HgL4EAQYAyABEgLeUPD_BwE
I just noticed. The link is for an N scale tool. Sorry. An HO scale one is available. Don't use anything else but this kind of tool to bend your trip pins. Regular rule needle nose pliers will ruin the pin and maybe break your coupler in the process.
And. Replace all plastic couplers with Kadees. When feasible. The gold standard. None other compare. You don't have to replace them all at once. They will mate with any other knuckle coupler as you transition to the new ones over time.
Any way you slice the cheese, plastic knuckle couplers are cheesy. They are not durable, as you have seen. Many do not even have a coil spring for the knuckle, just a little finger holding the knuckle closed that wears out in short order. Metal knuckle couplers are the only real way to go in serious model railroading. They do get expensive, but, how valuable is reliable, smooth operation to you? If you are into switching at all, no knuckle coupler couples up as smoothly as the metal Kadee coupler.
And, don't bother with the magnetic uncoupling ramps. Anyone who is into extensive switching knows that you can't put a ramp at every possible location you want to set out a car. Learn to use one of the many uncoupling tools available, or more budget-consciously, wooden skewers of the kind they serve shish kebab on.
I just noticed. The link is for an N scale tool. Sorry. An HO scale one is available. Don't use anything else but this kind of tool to bend your trip pins. Regular rule needle nose pliers will ruin the pin and maybe break your coupler in the process.
And. Replace all plastic couplers with Kadees. When feasible. The gold standard. None other compare. You don't have to replace them all at once. They will mate with any other knuckle coupler as you transition to the new ones over time.
Any way you slice the cheese, plastic knuckle couplers are cheesy. They are not durable, as you have seen. Many do not even have a coil spring for the knuckle, just a little finger holding the knuckle closed that wears out in short order. Metal knuckle couplers are the only real way to go in serious model railroading. They do get expensive, but, how valuable is reliable, smooth operation to you? If you are into switching at all, no knuckle coupler couples up as smoothly as the metal Kadee coupler.
And, don't bother with the magnetic uncoupling ramps. Anyone who is into extensive switching knows that you can't put a ramp at every possible location you want to set out a car. Learn to use one of the many uncoupling tools available, or more budget-consciously, wooden skewers of the kind they serve shish kebab on.