I play an old D8 1953. It was a mess when I got it. While I certainly don't recommend the following procedure for clean original instuments, it makes them 100% better....

I heated and pulle doff the lollipop tops with pliers. a small butane torch worked great. 4 of 8 gears were stripped and a weird size- I couldn't find anything to mate with the worm gears correctly. the old ratio was like 12:1 anyway, so I bought a right hand set of 6 in line Kluson stratocaster tuners. and a left handed set. I slotted out the sides of the pan to the existing tuner holes because someone did this before me in an effort to repair them. I used a dremel with a small disc metal cutter. i finished them off with a file and 400 grit sandpaper. the slots are very uniform and look great. what you end up with is deluxxe pans that look like stringmaster pans. I took four righty and four lefty klusons and placed them inside. drille dnew holes for the strings in the shafts. the cavity that the pans fit in on mine are very close to the back of the tuners. I simply taped them in place- just to hold them while I inserted them into the cavity. screw it down and you are back in the tuning business. the modern klusons are liek 18:1, so you get better tuning anyway. I did this to one neck and when the neck one goes, i will not hesitate to fix the other one. You could heat and pop off the kluson knob adn fit the lollipop back on for a more accurate look, but i didnt. I change strings and tunings alot and so far have high confidence in them. Every time i change strings on the original neck, I cringe when i'm getting them tight for that tell tale "pop!"

i have pictures, email me. good luck!

I too once searched and searched for parts to no avail. Now I'm playin again!