Peeking around with a flashlight, I happen to notice the secondary gear shaft bushing on the "engineers side" of my first run legacy K4 is showing some wear.
This is the shaft that rotates in the chassis above the drive axle. The gear on this shaft spins between the worm and the axle gear.
Loco has been lubed properly, in fact this side of the shaft gets the grease ooze out presumably because of the angle of the teeth to the worm. Theres maybe 1.5mm or so of slop that the shaft can rock back and forth in if the loco is off and you gently push-pull to put force on the gearset.
The firemans side bushing appears noticeably less worn. I presume the other bushing takes the brunt of the load due to the angle of the teeth.
Its 7 years old, and hasn't been run what I would consider a "ton". Its arguably the smoothest runner I have. Is this just normal wear for this?
I'm sure this secondary gear is key to legacy low speed performance, but of course, its another moving part to wear out. Its been a concern of mine since Lionel switched to this style of gearbox, and every newer loco I own has it.
These don't appear serviceable either . Going by Lionel parts site, the only option is to replace the entire chassis.
Thoughts?
