Those of you who saw my open Panzer 3 at Saturday's battleday may remember the 'gear wobble' issue I was having with the right gearbox.
I took the entire unit apart at work this evening, and it was actually not a hard process at all. 3 machine screws hold the halves of the gearbox together, and they surprisingly came out very easily.. as if loose. This may have been what led to my problem.
Removing the troublesome gear, it was evident that the 'big' and 'little' sections of the gear had simply unseated themselves. They are mated to each other and secured by a small pin or rivet, allowing them to rotate together.
So I took my hammer & punch, and realigned the gear. Voila, spins smooth as butter, in fact even better than the other gearbox. I can now freely rotate the gears by hand at the drive sprocket, when before I could not because of the tightness. I think over time I will be disassembling all of my 3:1s like this.
Goes to show ya, taking things apart isn't always a bad idea. The Panzer 3 is even better now
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Tiger I - Panzer II - Panzer III - Panzer IV - Chi Nu Kai - Panther G - KV-1b 756(r)
M4A3(76) Sherman - T-34/85 - M3 Grant - SECRET PROJECT