Hello Snowman.
Installing the balls is not difficult with a little care. We do it often, even replace all the balls when the assembly is starting to loose pre-load. If possible, remove the screw to a bench and set it up on vee-blocks.
Loading the screw is just a matter of inserting the balls into the reticulation holes, then rotating the screw slightly so that the balls rotate down and around the screw until the train of them appears at the outlet to the other hole. Often 2 or 3 turns or circuits of the screw.
It’s hard to tell sometimes if there are gaps between the balls. I normally get a pin punch just slightly smaller than the ball return tube, and place it down the escape hole on the shoulder that the return tube sits on. Holding the nut with the holes always facing up. Rotate the screw until all the balls run away down the opposite hole, and keep filling it until the balls come up to the level of that shoulder the return tube sits on.
Then load the reticulation tube with balls, leaving one or two balls short of a complete length, hold them in with some grease and carefully insert the tube. The pick up fingers on the return tube are often hand fitted. Before I dismantle them, I normally mark them with a needle file. “Nicks” 1 – 2 -3-4 etc, so that you get them back in the same place and orientation. Generally you will find they have been marked by the manufacturer under the saddle clamp. Be careful when fitting the return tubes back, not to tap them to hard, bruises on the tubes are no good.
The only problem, and the one you have now, is that you have to ensure that every ball is either in the correct circuit on the screw or contained in the ball return tube. Loose balls that get trapped on the wrong side of the pick up and locked between the wiper will do damage.
If you have over-travelled the screw, I’d strip the whole thing, to make sure you know where every ball is. It’s not difficult to start from scratch. I’m assuming this is a single nut? With a double nut pre-load setup, remove the key that locks the 2 nuts together, and rotate them apart, until they are loaded.
I have several screws here in the shop for re-balling. If you have any problem, email me, I can take Pics and mail them to you.
You might also consider installing some Poly-urethane bumpers to the bearing housings to prevent this in the future.
Best regards.
Phil
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