Fitting rear axle tube

A month or two ago I made a real effort to fit together and paint up the hornplates so that the paint was good and hard for when I came to bolt kit 10 on. Just got the rear axle tube out and it looks like I am going to have to undo the hornplates to get it in Is that the case or have people found a better way to install the rear axle tube? I'm not sure the hornplates will bend out enough to get it in!

Thanks!
Dan

Hi Dan,
There is no chance of "bending" horn plates!!!
You may even find you have to scrape any paint out of the holes that the axle tube fits in, as, from what I remember, it's a tight fit!
Sorry!!
Regards,
Tony

And there was me thinking there might be some 'magic'!!!

Thanks for posting Dan, I'll have to remember that myself.

When I did mine. I left the "left" side off. Fitted the right to the boiler. Fitted everything in to it then fitted the left plate on. No scratches what so ever.

Hi Dan,

Yes the rear axle tube will only fit between the horn plates when they are separate. I had to scrap off the paint from the holes in the horn plates and and from the outer edge of the axle tube, I am concerned that these areas may/will rust so when I eventually fit to the bolier will probably give the surfaces a coat of grease.

Have you managed to get the axle through the axle tube, I found this was a challenge but a worn flap disc in the drill sorted out the bushes in about half an hour in total.

Ian

I remember when I built my 2" engine, I had the axle running smoothly with the bearings fitted loose in the axle tube. Then I loctited the bearing's in place without the axle in situ, tried to refit the axle...no chance, I had to have the bearings machined at work to get the axle through.

The moral of the story is...when fitting the axle bearings, have everything assembled, remove axle, remove oiler's, remove bearings, loctite bearings, replace bearings, replace oilers, replace axle, wait, remove axle, remove oilers. Hopefully the axle still runs smooth.

Oh, isn't hind sight a wonderful thing.

Tony

ps, you will need your hornplates, spectical plates, axle and 2nd shaft tubes loosely fitted together to get around your boiler. Or go the way Lynn has, but that makes me think about bearing alignment

If everything is loose anyway to slide the assembly on. It does not make any difference to alignment. The main axial is a through part so has its own allignment and the crank needs fretting as the bearings are inserts.

I think I'll remove my right hand side - slightly less paint to touch up afterward! I won;t paint the mating faces, I'll leave that until it's assemble onto the boiler and then seal things under a layer of paint.

I've been rather lucky with my axle, loctited the bearings in, fitted axle, then removed axle within seconds and left to dry. Next evening the bearings were ever so slightly off, a quick run through with a flap wheel and the axle fits again - phew! Mind you it doesn't spin freely yet so I will have to fettle a little longer.

What about the 2nd shaft bearings though - It's going to take me hours to get those to fit!!!! I reckon i need a 35-40 mm flap wheel to get those to fit - anyone know where they do those?

After a kit is finished I tend to forget about how much work we've put into them - thank goodness STW supply everything machined else we'd be here forever!!!!

Dan

I got my flap wheels through Amazon.

On doing a trial assembly of the axle tube and the hornplates I found the threaded holes on the left hornplate were not inline with the holes in the tube. Having made quite certain the centre hole was in the correct place to locate the tube which it was, I then had to slot the holes in the tube to correspond with the threaded holes in the hornplate Each one had to be slotted in a different direction! Did the jig slip?? The slots are no detriment as the bolts only secure and do not align.

Peter.