With lots of time on my hands since I am home all the time, I took on another 227 project. As stout and reliable as these locos are, after 80 years of service they do need a little work. My current project is typical of these locos with the stub shafts that the idler gears run on having come loose in the frame. This results in the idler gear teeth hitting, and sometime locking on the gauge side corner of the blind driver tread. This is made worse by wear on the shaft journal and bore of the gear.
On this particular locomotive I have pulled the end drivers and partially removed to center driver to get the gears off. With the gears off the stub shafts can be knocked out from the back side. In measuring the stub shafts I found the journal only 0.0005” under sized, so I reused them. They were reinstalled with Loctite 640 sleeve retaining adhesive. While the 640 hardens I am cleaning up the motor. Tomorrow I will put the rest of the wheels and axles back on.
