Mike,
Only the tenon is square. It fits into a plastic/nylon cup in the square hole in the other axle half. That insulates the axles. The gear does have a square hole larger than the tenon that fits onto a corresponding square surface on the axle half with the 2mm tenon. It's a lousy weak system. I don't know what they were thinking!
The real early Porters used an entirely different axle arrangement, equally bad. they had a solid axle that was pressed into plastic wheel centers. It did that just fine but the wheels would get loose in the wheel center and fall off. Again another bad design. Hope this helps you decide to retire the old Porter and get a newer one in 1:20.3 scale. I have and converted to battery/RC. It's a solid design. Finally!

Mike,
That is a VERY common problem with the old 1:22.5 scale Porters. The joint between the rear wheels is a 2mm square tenon the slides into a square socket on the opposing axle half. Being made of pot metal it always breaks. Unfortunately there are no parts available anywhere. I have had several of these locos in the past break like this. I used to be able to get the parts from Barry Olson (Barry's Big Trains) but he ran out and built one of his famous drives for me. Now even Barry is no longer in business due to health problems. My best advice is put this Porter out to pasture and get one of the newer 1:20.3 Porters. It's a little bigger but a lot improved!

Quote from: ziplocbag on January 16, 2020, 02:50:55 PM
eh, yeah i guess i have to get a new shell.. thanks anyway i guess

Tim,
This loco is so detailed it has a WORKING Johnson bar. Open the engineer's front door and make sure the Johnson bar is not in neutral. If it is the valve rods will not move.
Pull it up and move it forward to engage the eccentric rods driven by the gear box. This could be why your valve rods are not moving.  

edit: I missed the part that said one side was working. In that case make sure the eccentric rods for that side are in fact riding on the eccentrics.

Good to go now. Wow that's a great paint job on the 44 tonner! 

Bill,

The first photo link tells me I do not have permission to view it without signing in. Perhaps you need to change it somehow and give permission and make it public like the first photo.

Quote from: Loco Bill Canelos on January 03, 2020, 12:18:27 PM
Joe,

Well I hope this finally works.  In the past I always used Photobucket, but that site is down so I have started to try flickr.  Clearly I am not adapting to Flickr very well.

Regards,

Bill

Nothing now Bill.

It is meant to simulate the coupler pin lift bar. It actually has no purpose on the Bachmann cars.

First link says I need to sign in as a member of Flicker (I'm not a member).

Second link (conductor Bill) works OK. You look every inch the part! 

Bill,

I'd love to see the paint job, but neither link is working! 

Quote from: trolley on December 30, 2019, 03:07:39 PM
I am in need of the "center" gearbox on the Climax or a parts diagram.  The train runs good, but the side pistons appear not to be connected. 

Is the drive shaft connected? 

Some of the forums I post to do not allow direct posting of photos from your computer. I think it is unreasonable to expect a host to store all your photos for you. That costs the host a bundle!

They should remove that "attach:" widget from this forum as it has NEVER worked! 

It is a closeout of the second release. I grabbed one at the fantastic price they offered. It is one fine loco!

Here is a link every railroader should bookmark (unless of course you only model Amtrak). 

https://www.steamlocomotive.com/whyte/