In the work, a methodology for preventing the failure of rubber cord couplings and their fastening bolts has been developed in order to timely assess the causes of damage to rubber cord joints and assess the state of casing tension under the existing loads. The methodology was tested on rubber cord couplings, which are widely used in the rolling stock of Latvian Railways.The paper collects and investigates in detail the statistics of failures of rubber-cord couplings and their anchoring bolts for the period from 2012-2021. A review of scientific research papers on rubber-cord couplings by various international authors was carried out. The actions of forces and stresses under operating conditions on the rolling stock of the Latvian Railway have been determined, and also the hardness of rubber-cord couplings in different temperature ranges has been determined. Data on rubber cord couplings angles in radial angular and axial deflection of shafts is collected. Experiments on uniaxial tension of different samples of rubber-cord coupling have been carried out in RTU laboratory; stress-strain diagrams have been obtained. In the SolidWorks software strength calculation and search of loads influencing occurrence and development of defects of rubber-cord coupling shell has been performed. In the course of full-scale tests on a tensile testing machine, a search was made for the shape of the coupling fragments, with the help of which it is possible to investigate the most stressed and damaged areas of the coupling shells. 3D models of specimen shell fragments and surface layer plates used in the tests were created. The frequency analysis of the rubber-cord coupling shell to determine its natural frequencies was performed, and critical frequencies to be avoided during operation were found. In the RTU laboratory, on the basis of experiments, the reasons for the destruction of the rubber-cord coupling bolts were determined. On the basis of the comprehensive researches carried out by the author as part of the promotion work, a methodology has been developed for the timely investigation of the causes of destruction of rubber-cord couplings and an estimation of a stressed condition of a shell of a coupling from operating loadings has been developed. It has been proposed to equip vehicles with shock and vibration bolt condition monitoring during operation devices to reduce the number of bolt failures of such couplings.