What part of the country are you located (just out of curiosity)?

[quote="tdmidget"] The gears are not looking very good./quote]

Thanks for all the input guys. Seems like a lot of machinists on here.
The gears all seem great to me. Maybe my pictures don’t show it properly.

Mark

Gears look like they have plenty of life left in them to me. Am I the last dinosaur left in the world who realizes that locomotives aren't Swiss watches?

Interesting anecdote about those gears. Because they are straight cut they whine a good bit under load, same as our #9 Mighty Mo.

Archie Robertson mentioned the gear whine of these exact gears of #6 when he wrote about a cab ride in his 1943 book Slow Train to Yesterday. #6 would have been pretty new at that point.

Looking forward to hearing them whine again after all these years!!

Hmm. Ours doesn’t whine at all that I can tell. At least not that you can hear over the engine. Being an 8T, there’s no front wall in the cab between you and the the engine so that’s all you hear from inside. Don’t hear any whine outside either. I’ll pay closer attention next time we run it.

This just crossed my feed, courtesy Dave Watson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHbSU3djfvA

"Stewartstown Railroad #6 Little Mo. Stewartstown to Silver Lake"

I made that little slideshow and posted it to YouTube. Will make another one when I’m done with the restoration. Maybe ‘Silver Lake to Stewartstown’.

The bearing and sleeve showed up. Will send them and the input shaft housing to my buddy in Md.

I think this is the first mention of the sleeve. Where does it go or where was it as found?

I have a guy who will machine the worn bore in the input shaft housing, press fit the sleeve, then machine the sleeve for a press fit of the new bearing. I found the repair sleeve at a company in Canada. Shaver-Kudell.

For some reason I thought there was dramatically greater eccentric wear than the thickness of that sleeve. I would be at least tempted to replicate the repair that contributed to the Lac Megantic disaster: machine the sleeve and tack it in position as appropriate, then use JB Weld or other epoxy to fill any voids that might remain. I doubt that area gets hot enough to cause trouble,..

The wear is about the same thickness as the sleeve. If it messes up the threaded holes I can always relocate them out a small amount. I can make a new retaining plate also, if needed.

Just glad I found someone local to take the job on! I previously, incorrectly, stated that the casting was steel. It is in fact iron. Might still get preheated and tack welded. We’ll see what my machinist recommends.

It needs to be an interference fit in steel or iron. The epoxy of any brand will not give the tension that steel will. BUT, I'm seeing another problem here. Last I read here he is going with a PTO, Twin Disc type, on the engine for a clutch. That leaves this input shaft with one bearing. Previously the engine end of this was bolted to the Plymouth clutch and so supported on that end. The power plant and gearbox was aligned by the rabbet fits. The new arrangement with no rigid joint between the clutch and input shaft will require at the very least a rigid coupling and perfect alignment.

You are correct.

This input shaft would not do well without more support. I built the engine mounts to line up the center of the crankshaft and the center of the trans input shaft. I’ll also use a rigid coupling, of some fashion, so the input shaft will have better support.

If I don’t think it’s supported enough, I can add brackets and a pillow block in between the PTO and transmission.