On Jan 17, 9:37*am, "
wrote:
This may be the wrong group to post this question to however I was
hoping that someone familiar with my problem may read this and be able
to offer some advice.
I have a 646 Hudson steam engine that I received with the train set
*that my Dad bought me in 1953. The set comes out now just briefly for
the holidays,
(space is limited).
This year while cleaning and lubricating my equipment I noticed that
there is a gear on the left side of the engine between the most
forward and center of two of the six large wheels in the center of the
engine that seems to wobble on the post it rides on. The post looks
like its ok. It just seems to be the hole in the gear that has opened
up considerably.
This gear, about the size of a quarter was just "placed" on this
shaft, however with the large wheels in place it is captive and cannot
be removed from the shaft without removing these two of the six wheels
in the center of the engine. The wheels seem to have been pressed on
to their shafts and I don't want to force anything. The engine still
runs well, however this gear wobbles as it idles between the two
wheels.
Luckily, the teeth on the gear as well as the teeth on the wheels are
not chewed yet, but if this situation persists I'm sure they will be.
I'm certain that this can only get worse if neglected.
I have always maintained and even rebuilt many pieces of my set over
the years but I've never disassembled an engine drive before. Can
anyone more familiar with this kind of dissasembly please advise me as
to how to go about removing these driving wheels without damaging the
engine, the axles or motor assembly? Or if there is a more appropriate
newsgroup I might present
this question to I would very much appreciate being advised of that as
well. I've tried rec.models.railroad but never received an answer.
Thanks very much, Lenny

* * Reply * *Reply to author

Gosh, it's been since the latter '50s since I have worked on those.
IIRC, the motor armature gear engages the top of that idler and the
idler feeds the drive to the two drive wheel gears. I seem to recall
that the gear on the armature was steel and the rest are die-cast. As
others have mentioned, it is likely that the die cast parts are into
the decomposition stage, so pressing the two drivers off the axles is
fraught with them shattering. Assuming you could get the drivers off
safely, and the idler is not in the final stage of decomposition, it
could be bored out on a lathe and a brass/bronze bearing inseted. The
drive wheels are then pressed back on the axles making sure to line up
the splines to ensure that the 'quartering' is correct [angular
position of the connecting rod pins].
I would suggest you go to the mentioned web site to see if new parts
are available [wheels and idler] before attempting any repairs.

Neil S.