I’ve got an old Rivarossi “Casey Jones” that ran great up until about a week ago. One wheel on the drive /gear axle has become loose and now turns too freely on the axle so it won’t stay quartered. Apparently the grooves on the axle or wheel or both have worn down and no longer hold the wheel in position. I’ve tried super glue, gorilla glue and wedging a small wire between the axle and the wheel hub but nothing seems to work. I thought of solder but the wheel hub is plastic so I won’t even try that. Any other suggestions.
What went wrong when you tried glue? Did the glue bond just break under operating stress? Or fail to stick at all? For adhesives to work, the surfaces have to been clean and oil free. You would have to remove the axle and wheel from the locomotive and clean in a solvent (alcohol or mineral spirits), followed by a wash with soap and hot water, followed by a dry. Then the adhesive has a chance to stick. And for a job like this I would use epoxy, it bonds to metal and to plastic, it sets up hard, and it’s strong. Super glue is not as strong, and gorilla glue doesn’t set up as hard. You will have t o get the wheel in quarter before the epoxy sets up. Short of a quartering jig I don’t know just how you might do that.
Solder doesn’t work on plastic.
Or you can try to get a new driver and axle assembly. Rivarossi might have spare parts. Google might turn up another vendor. Or you might find a junker locomotive at a train show.
Following dstarr’ s recommendations, you could also try to slightly knurl the axle end from light pressure of a serrated jaw pliers. This will help break free an hardened AC and allow some solid “tooth” for the epoxy to grab. Quartering is most important before epoxy sets- it’s quite a permanent bond. Even properly quartered the wheel could still exhibit a wobble as the plastic hub is so worn. Do the best you can in initial placement.
You could try peening the end of the axle with a chisel. .
Thanks. The wheel-set has been removed and cleaned. The glue just gives out under pressure. Quartering is fairly easy by matching the poisition of the counterweights on the other drivers. The wheel set is in the basement now with two-part epoxy curing. The epoxy I used is the clay-like stuff from Micro Mark but the axle pushed most of it out the other end. If this don’t work I’ll try the more liquid two-part epoxy.
Have you ever tried to buy Rivarossi parts??? Hens teeth are more redily available.
Thanks for the reply.