I'm trying to replace 2 worn out worm gears on an old train engine. I know that the easiest thing to do would be to just buy a new engine, but since I want to get this experience for robotics sake anyway, I figured I'd take this opportunity to learn something.
Replacement parts specifically for the train are not sold.(Actually, I even needed to do some dremel cutting just to open everything up.)
The worms themselves are intact, but I figure buying a set would be safer than trying to find worm gears to match the worms. The gears have 14 teeth and sit on an ~3mm axle. I haven't figured out the pitch yet.
I've searched a few sites I found in other forum posts, but cannot find any where you can sort by price. I can throw together some values, but every product I get to ends up being ~$60, when I'm definitely looking for something $2-$8 at the most.
I find extremely cheap sets on ebay, but they are all replacement parts for something specific, and do not include stats like # of teeth / pitch / axle diameter. Many of the listings I find are only a worm, without the gear. I'm not asking someone to take the stats and find something for me, but rather a pointed finger in the right direction. What key words (material, etc) should I be using to find better results for my price range and purpose? Thanks everybody!