Reply to "Weaver 2-8-0 noise"

Scott the outer side of the bearings are likely flush with the side of the gearbox and should be visible if you wipe the grease away. Take a toothpick or small screwdriver and see how far you can push it into the opening that grease is coming from. The amount of grease oozing out is such that the bearing if there is wore out or perhaps the grease is coming from around the outside of the bearing.  The bearing and it's seat can wear just like the hole the the shaft passes through. The rear bearing and it's seat in one of the Williams 42:1 gearboxes I own was wore to the point the bearing was spinning in it's seat. However grease never flowed out the way it is on your loco. Perhaps you overstuffed the gearbox when you greased it.  I took some shim brass and cut a 3/16" X 3/4" wide ribbon and formed it around the outside of the bearing and clamped it between the two clamshell halves it stopped the bearing from spinning yet there is still some float so the bearing can align with the shaft without binding.  As far as new bearings go I was asking myself the same thing as I was patching my gearbox.  The shaft the worm is on is metric guessing around 3mm (not going to pull a body off tonight to measure)  and ball bearings are available starting around 1mm ID so I'm fairly sure with some searching you can find an ID which matches the worm shaft diameter.  They even come with flanges which would be a big help. I think that is the direction I am going.  However a thought I had a time or two is to try modifying a pair of the bushings from an American Flyer Alco diesel motor. The hole in them is near ,122" which is about .002 larger than 3mm they might work.     Think I like the idea of ball bearings better.   Also;  I think Ted is on to something about using vacuum hose  between the flywheel and the worm shaft. I was having a time quieting down my Williams PRR  2-8-2 with a 42:1 gearbox and I removed the dogbone shaft then substituted some 1/4" OD silicone tubing it made a big difference. I had to insert a snug fitting piece of brass tubing down the middle to keep it from stretching and bowing out at high speeds but I cut the brass tube so it did not touch the flywheel or the worm shaft and I floated the motor in 1/8" thick foam tape like the heating / air-conditioning people use.  Loco is quiet enough now that the wheels rolling on the track drown out the gearbox and motor.  Another thing I did was to line the boiler with that foam tape like Ted suggested. The 42:1 gearbox and having to spin the motor at 10,000rpm to drive 45smph can make quite a noise but I no longer hear the motor and gearbox I only hear the wheels roll.  One forgiving factor I was able to get away with a 385 motor because the 42:1 box creates 2.5 x the torque as a typical MTH 16:1 box.  Isolating the motor from any metal to metal contact with the boiler and chassis was of prime concern you can see the foam surrounding the motor. Same foam I used to line the boiler.       j