Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

nice mod Jim, one thing I do that could help you is I loose the flat washer between the axle hub & bearing , I also turn off about 2K" from the hub (because of the added thickness of the bearing) which tends to make the oscillating mating surfaces a bit unparalleled  as you experienced earlier & let steam escape , and then again I also turn the hub snout down to have just a slight lip to ride against the inner bearing collar (about another 1K) , don't forget to adjust the stanchions to get as parallel as possible...once done correctly you should be able to turn the engine frame horizontally & the axle just slides right through & out. (this takes the most time)