RDG /Myford do a new hardened shaft and bronze bearings. But at a price! The old white metal bearings are extremely thick and they can be re-scraped. The shaft may well need a skim, but you can scrape the old bearings to suit. It will lower your centre height a touch, but who cares when the refurb will cost you nothing.

I hoarded the last set of new white metal bearings in captivity, but when I came to do the job, I just scraped my old bearings in and sold the new bearings for a large amount of cash.

Andrew.

Edited By Andrew Tinsley on 17/04/2021 14:57:16

A bit left field. but would one of the modern plastic bearing materials work? There is a full size loco running around with PTFE coupling rod bearings and by all accounts it is successful

Thanks for that, Andrew

… my ‘fear’ was that the oil might drain away rather too quickly.

Not a problem for me anyway, as I have an ML7R … but it’s useful to learn from the experience of others.

MichaelG.

That would be good if it works. I know a little about metal spraying, but not too sure if white metal alloy would spray too well, because of its low melting point.

Anyone really knowledgeable about metal spraying?

Andrew.

P.S. I have in the distant past, cast white metal bearings for full size locos. (Scraping axle boxes is hard work when you have to put the box on and off the wheel journal) . It would be an easy job to remetal or simply add a layer of white metal onto ML7 bearings. I am not even sure that the ML7 bearings have a backing. Making new ones should be pretty straightforward.