Cincinnati No. 4 Horizontal Mill Rear Spindle Cap

While changing the oil and inspecting the inside of the gearbox of my Cincinnati Dial-Type No. 4 Horizontal Mill, I found that the rear bearing (430), behind the flywheel (435), has worked its way free. That nut (433), that holds everything in place, seems to have lost its set screw and unscrewed itself from the spindle. If I could remove the rear spindle cap (432), where you tighten the drawbar, then I could better evaluate the condition of the bearing and possibly reinstall it.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to remove the rear spindle cap. It has two 3/8" threaded blind holes, centered around the drawbar / spindle, 3.5" apart. I was thinking that this was just a plug which could be remove with slide hammer. From the inside it also looks like a plug. However, I've been unsuccessful trying to removing it. I have a parts book (specifically for my mill) and disassembly instructions (from a slightly different vintage). The instructions simply say to remove the rear cap without saying exactly how that's done.

If anyone has some insight about removing the rear spindle cap, I would greatly appreciate it.

I'm happy to report that I found a 300 pound gorilla to operate the slide hammer and the rear spindle cap was successfully removed.

Upon initial inspection, it looks like the nut (433) likely lost its set screw a long time ago. It's internal threads show some wear from running on the spindle. However, I'm now thinking that the bearing stayed in place up until the mill was unloaded from the rollback truck. That caused the flywheel shift backwards and push the bearing out. Fortunately, I've only run the mill about 5 mins since then.

With a little bit of luck, I think I will be able to reuse the bearing and get it reinstalled tomorrow.