We are in the final stages of our wheel repair on our 6 axle dining/chair car. We set the car back on the trucks today and all went well. My question today is about our side bearing rollers. The pins are heavily worn and the bore inside the roller is worn tapered out over .250". The bores in the gimbal (that's what I am calling the rocker housing that the roller is actually connected to. It pivots laterally within the mount connected to the truck frame) are worn pretty bad. I am looking at multiple options, but would like some advice from people with more experience.

Option 1: I bore the gimbal out the minimum size to the next standard shaft size. I machine new shafts and pin them with bolts. I bore out the rollers and install bronze bushings.

Option 2: Same as option 1 except hardened shaft and hardened steel bushing.

Option 3: New oversized shaft and sealed roller or ball bearing

Option 4: New oversized steel shaft. New steel roller machined as original with no bushing or bearing.

Option 5: Open to new and/or better options.

I understand that in normal operation these rollers should never rotate through 360 degrees. My fear with a bearing is that because of the varying pressures, and lack of consistent rotation, the bearings would fail prematurely.

Same goes for the bronze bushing, except I would be worried about the bushing material being smooshed out the side. (yes, smooshed is in my technical vocabulary today, it's been a long day)

The hardened steel shaft & bushing seems like the best option to me, but the original design of steel on steel, unless repaired or replaced at some time, has lasted a long, long time.

Any suggestions?
Eric

I'd suggest contacting Miner Enterprises at http://www.minerent.com/ as they and their antecedent companies made side bearings. Kind of "going to the horses' mouth". They are good folks to work with and have helped us at Mid-Continent Rwy. Museum here in WI. mld

Thank you for the info. I will contact them tomorrow. It is interesting that you suggested Miner. The tag on the side of our truck frames says it has a Miner locking center pin.