I know that there has been a little back-and-forth here about MDC Shay re-gearing, but I am building one now with the original gears with no intention of going to NWSL stuff. However, it’s not going real good. I am finding that the jack-shaft gears are reluctant to consistently mesh with the driver gears. Is this pretty common? Is it simply a matter of more careful sanding of the mating gears? I have been cautiously using 600 grit paper. Any tips, guys?
Happily for me, my ‘young’ are too old to be eaten, otherwise I could get into some trouble here. Am I having fun yet? Well…yeah I am! But I think it would be more fun if the ***ed things just FIT!
Gear paths that complete a circle are asking for trouble, usually binding up. Instead of allowing all four jackshaft gears to fight each other, I removed all but one, that being plenty to drive the valve gear.
Unfortunately, three of my axle gears were cracked when it arrived here, new in the box, so now the valve gear runs smoothly, but the loco doesn’t move. From what the guys here tell me, the NWSL gear kits will fix it right up.
