HLV-H carriage restoration

Could someone please tell me if all the needle roller bearings in the carriage are the same size and spec? (ie buy a bunch to replace all at the same time?). Also, is the 21T gear on the end of the carriage handwheel shaft detachable from that shaft and if so how, or must one buy a complete shaft with 21T gear already attached? As a newby to Hardinge I am aghast at how this carriage apron is a muddy rotting mess the like of which I have never seen on a lathe before!!! I have read other restorer's accounts of this phenomenon and really have to wonder at how such an appalling design failure could be perpetrated - where does all that watery muck come from and why are the gears not made of non-rusting steel?

My experience is only with the HLV (no -H. The HLV-H has got a lot of improvements on my machine!) but the needle roller bearings probably aren't all the same size and spec on the HLV-H. Some will be closed end, come will be open end and there are probably two or three different sizes. If you've got a parts diagram it'll help with the bearing varieties. When you strip the apron, it's not too bad a job to measure the diameters and lengths and then just order the whole lot at one time.

With the same caveat on the hand wheel shaft and gear, it was a single piece on my HLV. You could easily make a shaft to fit a separate pinion to with Loctite with out any issues if you've got another lathe. I assume that all the gears are 22DP stub form, like the HLV. I had to make a complete set of replacement shafts and gears for mine due to previous abusers running water based coolant and not having the motor attached to the apron. I ended up making them all 22dP 14.5° PA, because that's the gear cutters that I had:-

Interesting Mark, thanks. I am at the very beginning of restoration and am this evening having second thoughts. I have some nice European lathes and do not need this one but thought it would be interesting for a cheap buy of what is supposedly a high precision american masterpiece. You would not expect to see an Apron like mine in a quality European machine, and a forum discussion of HLV-H vs Schaublin 102 VM is a joke (no comparison in build quality whatsoever). And what is it with all these Allen screws over Allen screws - are they not confident in the tightness of fit of the first screw without needing back up on top? Schaublin don't do this, nor Colchester, Myford, Emco etc.I am wondering if it is really worth the effort. Clearly people do believe so because there are quite a few restoration blogs. Are you very happy with your HLV?

The Allen screw over Allen screw idea is in the jaw chuck. The first screw to go in the hole is a custom screw about 1" inch long. The second screw is a regular dimension Allen screw.

The sad parts is that if the previous owner had read and followed the point of no water base coolants, it might look a lot better. Mine had the pocket for the crossslide screw full of brown mud. The previous owner assured me at no time was water based coolant used. Check with Babin machine, Paul help me when I did mine. Most of the bushings can be source from McMaster. I still need to replace head wheel shaft and both bushing. The shaft is $450 plus from the folks at Hardinge. I have the parts just need to do the work. Let me if you want the numbers on bushing.

Good luck.

Another thing is check the lead nut and screw, I had to replace both it not for the faint hearted. The manual from Hardinge is a good source of repair info.