in august -23-2016 I had an issue with the crankshaft having a metal rod that broke and I fixed that issue.
but it seems that the small idler gear that meshes with the larger gear on crankshaft has a worn shaft that it rotates on and under load will loose contact with the larger gear on the crankshafts 3 cylinder block assembly or the repair I did the crankshaft may not be perfectly straight so it may pull the larger gear on crankshaft away from that idler gear during its rotation but is so small to the naked eye that its undetectable!
I finally have it fixed I hope? as that small gear has an L shaped bracket that has a screw at each end of the L to hold it firmly to the 3 cylinder block assembly. the fix is to remove the crankshaft assembly from the main block and using a needle nose pliers I carefully coaxed each side of the raised metal bracket that the gear and its shaft are attached to the L bracket forward towards the inside of block cylinder assembly so that when the crankshaft is reinstalled both gears are closer together.
I cannot say how long this will last but at least it can once again move forward or backward with out hearing a gear spinning sound yet the shay will not move! at first I thought it had stripped a few of the gears teeth off as its a semi loud spinning sound !!
this 3 truck shay has a total of 5 drive gears 2 on the 3 cylinder block assembly 2 on a 1 inch long shaft that meshes with the crankshafts idler gear and the worm gear on the main drive motor shaft.
if you ever wondered what was under that raised plate on the underside of your shay that is where 3 of the drive gears reside it has 4 screws holding it to the boiler assembly. this is also an area you need to check for grease as these appear to be brass and metal gears or at least they have that brass color to them maybe one of the our ogr forum lionel techs can clarify this for me?
you can barely make out small idler gear next to black cover and the crankshafts gear these two were the ones loosing contact with each other! the small idler gear is the one that meshes with the gear protruding from boiler opening.
above is a photo I borrowed from lionels replacement parts page if they had it available I would buy 2 of them !! to bad they don't show the backside as thats where the smaller gear is residing it really is nothing more than an idler gear that transfers power from the drive motor to the 3 cylinder block assembly then to the driveshafts to power the drive wheels. when you realize the size and weight of this shay and then look at the size of this small idler gear its amazing at what it has to do!
I hope this might help someone.
