NDDan
Guest
I'm worried the gears may have been switched around causing poor tooth contact. Slide new gears together where when feeling with your finger the outsides of teeth are flush with each other. Then slide apart just far enough to have backlash. If the gears were set together to tight or bad mesh they likely warmed up and quickly ate themselves to early death. We use triple lip bearings on vertical shaft which eliminates annoying premature bearing failure.