I was able to return to my shop after a month of being my wife's nurse, cook and bottle washer. I had several things in mind to turn. However as I started to turn, the tailstock kept slipping and could not be tightened. I removed and inspected. The threads were stripped and the nut would not tighten, just slipped in place on the off-center adjustment. I removed and disassembled. I had to cut the nut off to inspect, it would not come off. It was shot. I did find the proper replacement shaft and ordered one. It was about $10 and so was shipping.  I thought maybe I could shorten the shaft and still be able to use it by cutting off the stripped section. It took a while to find a replacement metric nut and I was set to go. However, it was about one eighth inch too short. Oh well, the new shaft should be here soon.............I hope.

Well that sux! Hoping for a speedy delivery!

I got tired of waiting for my part and made one. I cut the old striped threaded part off, redrilled and threaded with standard threads and used a cut off bolt to finish the job. It works fine and will last quite a while and at least until the new one comes in. Its probably stalled somewhere in the ocean on a slow boat from china.