Large Scale Central

USAT aftermarket axle gears

Some of you may have seen on FB that there is a guy up here in the Boston area, Jiro Yeramian, who is making replacement gears for USAT axles out of delrin to avoid the splitting issue. I visited him this morning to pick up a few, and was very impressed. He machines them by hand. I bought some for a 44 Tonner and PA-1. The PA-1 is the same as the other 6-axle locos, and he also has them for the 4-axle GPs.

They are $15 each, which adds up, but it sure beats trying to repair the original gears with sleeves or whatever.

His email is girotek at rcn.com

Eric,

Sounds like a good product. But, at $15.00 each one would need to weigh that against buying say a pair of R22-135’s for $19.95 or other complete axles with wheels from USA trains.

But those will just split, too. I think $15 is reasonable for a permanent solution. And in the cases of the engines I’m fixing, new axles are NLA.

Duplicate post deleted

Just a heads up!

Having witnessed an aftermarket gear replacement, one thing to watch out for is back to back wheel spacing after the metal wheels with their metal stubs are pressed in. In this example, with wheels fully seated, the spacing was wide (at the edge of NMRA spec.). Within the hole that goes thru the gear from one side to the other there is a small ridge collar to prevent the metal wheel stubs from touching, thereby, preventing an electrical short for track power users. The collar was thicker than the USAT factory OEM part.

-Ted

Putting the sleeves on is not difficult, you get the right tubing, slice off a bit, put it on and press the wheels back into the gear casting.

If you buy a new casting, you have to do the same amount of work except the few seconds to dremel slice a bit of tubing and slide the tubing on.

In either case you remove the wheels from the casting and then put them back in.

It does get pricey at $15 a pop, i.e. $60 a loco… since the guy is a fellow Armenian, I wish him well, but as a fellow Armenian, I’m cost conscious!

A good alternative to a damaged gear casting, but not really way easier.

I press my wheels in with a digital caliper at the ready so I can measure the back to back as I’m pressing the wheels together

Greg

To each his own.

In any case, I use this plastic jig to ensure that the back-to-back is correct and that the gear is centered. Works great. I’m going to make one up for the offset gear on the 3-axle block.

Eric,

You could market that jig.

USA made a design change several years ago on the axles. Is the splitting still a problem with the newer ones or just on the older versions?

Paul Burch said:

Eric,

You could market that jig.

USA made a design change several years ago on the axles. Is the splitting still a problem with the newer ones or just on the older versions?

I don’t really know. All the used locomotives I’ve purchased (3 F3s, 44T, GP9) have had the problem. I have a set of PA units that don’t seem to have it, but they don’t appear to have ever run. I don’t know how old any of these units are.

I have had split gear castings on both the new and the old type axles. It seems to be a little less often on the new type, but I cannot be sure. I have a lot of their locos, so I have a good “statistical sample”.

Eric, would love to purchase a few of your jigs, would make nice Christmas presents… I assume you made them hollow somewhat, solid would use a heck of a lot of filament.

Greg

Yes, the slicing software allows you to specify the percentage of infill. I probably set it to 20% or so. It creates a 3D lattice inside, so it’s still pretty strong in compression.

Happy to make you a few. I’m going to work up a version for the 3-axle blocks, and for the 44 Tonner, if it ends up being different from the geeps.

Eric are you making one for the NW-2 … or is it the same as the Geeps ?

I haven’t opened up a NW-2. The whole axle is a different part number than the Geeps, but that may just be because the wheel is a different diameter. The gear dimensions might be the same. If you have an axle and could measure the gear, we’d know for sure.

Greg probably knows…

The gear is different on the USAT NW2, 34T worm gear verse 33T worm gear of the F3, GP7, GP30, GP38 etc…

Michael

Eric Reuter said:

To each his own.

In any case, I use this plastic jig to ensure that the back-to-back is correct and that the gear is centered. Works great. I’m going to make one up for the offset gear on the 3-axle block.

I have one and love it

Thanks Eric

Eric,

I think your jig is an outstanding device. I would like to get one, too.

Thank you,

-Ted

Eric, I would be interested on following up on the “3rd axle offset gear”… funny thing I have not opened the 3rd axle on my motor blocks. This is probably because I only have a PA set that have 3 axles, all the rest of my USAT fleet is geeps and F3’s (my modelling era). I do have an ABBBA set though, looking forwards to getting it all equipped.

So the gear on that axle is offset from center? I’ll have to open one up and look, just waiting for my speaker boxes for them to do this all at the same time. Do you have a picture of that “floppy axle” opened?

Thanks, Greg

Eric Reuter said:

To each his own.

In any case, I use this plastic jig to ensure that the back-to-back is correct and that the gear is centered. Works great. I’m going to make one up for the offset gear on the 3-axle block.

I’ll take one! How much $$$ and where do I send it to? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

BTW, I don’t think there is a difference from the Geeps, F-units, NWs, SWs, and even 44-tonners as far as this would apply.

I’ll make a post in the for sale section relating to this jig.