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1991 vf 1 gearbox rebuild

eksinger

Aluminum
Joined
Sep 1, 2011
Location
Caldwell
With much thanks to moparmuscl for his bold endevors of documenting his rebuild of his vf 1, I am in need of doing a rebuild of the gearbox in my vf 1.. due to the cold weather the spindle sounded horrible between 500 and 1800 rpms. I had read somwhere that the if the noise was between xx rpms in low gear and xx rpms in high gear then the issue is with the gearbox.. then didn't sound any better at 3K.. so i finished my last job and begin the teardown..
 

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The spindle spins freely. but it does sound a little dry.. the inside housing looks pretty good just a little dirty after 22yrs. I could take the gearbox apart only so far.. unlike Moparmusci's pulley that he was able to pull off with a gear puller, mine is heatshrunk on.. but thanks to the guy's at Priest Electric.. they were able to heat up the pulley enough to pop the pulley off. "thanks cliff" :) and was able to get to the last main bearing.7.jpg8.jpg9.jpg10.jpg11.jpg
 
Here I am pulling off the main bearing. Notice the seal behind it. It's an aluminum disk with an o-ring on the outside and the seal gets pressed in on the inside..
took a week to get the bearings and seals in.. I set them side by side to make sure I knew which was which.. I had marked the old ones with a sharpie and where they went.
The main bearing has to be installed in housing followed by that funky seal first before installing the gear shaft.. I used lots of petroleum jelly and still sheared off a bit of o-ring.. it's tight enough i'm not seeing a problem. I had to have the guy's at priest electric press on the gear shaft then install the pulley. They have an induction heater so it was a piece of cake for them to do.. Thanks guy's..12.jpg13.jpg14.jpg15.jpg16.jpg
 
The rest of the bearings went on sweet.. I turned the oven up to 270 degrees, set the bearing in and brought it up to temperature. After that the bearing slid on really well. I also put the idler shaft in the freezer for about a half hour so I could slide the bearing in the housing.. slipped in perfectly..
next is to install the spring washer and the seal.. so I didn't have an install tool to go around the shaft. So I improvised and used one of the old bearings to slide over, took the batteries out of my mag flashlight and used the flashlight as an install tool.. took out the bearing and used the flashlight to finish the seal install.
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Here you can see the Hi tech installation tool in use.. all gears installed. You can see the pneumatic shifter arm attached to the idler bearing that does the shifting.
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The rest of bearing slid on nicely using the oven at 270 degrees.. then assembled the top cover, and the rest of the pneumatics for the shifter.
Note: after inspecting the O-rings on the pneumatics. The rubber was in excellent condition. No wear marks. Soft, and still had the o-ring parting line on them. So I reused them.. we're ready to assemble.
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Now the gearbox is installed. I didn't go too tight on the belt just snugged it up with a little pressure applied.. the spindle turns pretty good despite how tight the gear box is.. “oh and it was tight before”
Here is the oil I used.. I put in approximatly a quart and a half. Just to the bottom of the top gear. This stuff is like gold.. over $18 quart..

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you'll notice the 4th pic of the last post is the top of the main pulley shaft where the orientation ring goes.. After I was able to fire up the machine. I installed the ring lightly. Went in to MDI and keyed in m19. This activates the shot pin. I used a piece of stock in the vise and lined up the spindle lugs with the stock. This sets up my orientation for the tool change, thus tightening the bolts on the ring.

Did a few tool changes.. “perfect”
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Next for the spindle warm cycle.. started from 300 and worked my way up in 200 rpm increments to 5000 rpm this spindle max.. afterward had a spindle fault alarm when I went to shut it down.. ended up shutting the machine down.. started it up cleared all the alarms. The spindle sounded funny after that. Using a stethescope It appeared to be in the motor itself.. so I let it cool down.. thinking it's going to be the next item up for repair.. I let it cool down and it sound really good now.. must have overheated the motor. I didn't have the exaust fan on at the time.. still it's a 22 yr old machine so i'm going to take it easy for a while.. next day I made a part.. for an oiler pump for a bridgeport.. you can see the broken one next to it.. seems to machine really well for an old machine.

A special thanks goes out to moparmuscl for having the courage to tackle your vf 1 rebuild.. without that I'm pretty sure I'd have gone to the local Haas retailer and would have had to either buy or send my gearbox back for rebuild. and i'm afraid of what the cost of that would have been.

Oh, and speaking of cost.. total cost for this repair.. bearings and seals $155.00, 2 quarts of oil $45.00 a tube of rtv silicone. $5. so just over $200.
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Good work, Really nice work on the pump part there. I second the thanks to everyone's contributions. I have been enjoying making parts with my vintage Haas, would not be possible without all the help here. Really nice work on the pump part there.
 
I can tell you what you saved...

Gearbox...Haas does not rebuild for you.
Gearbox...Haas does not sell to you.

Gearbox come with New Spindle Motor as a Package

NEW Motor is NOT compatible with OLD Spindle Drive
You will BUY New Spindle Drive

New Spindle Drive Requires a Re-generator.



Now lets see what you saved...I'll use round numbers.

Gearbox and Spindle motor $5,000.00
Spindle Drive $2,5000.00
Re-generator $250.00
Shipping form the Ca $200.00
Install $1,000.00
Return Core to Ca $200.00


Drive was a bit more, think I paid a bit less as it was not included in original quotation to have Gearbox/spindle replaced. My dealer worked with me, went to bat for me with Haas and it's why I continue to buy machines from Haas.

Originally it was 5,000 to replace and I'd only be down one day. I could run machine in other gear till I had Gearbox/Spindle trucked in and a service call scheduled. 5 grand gave me a new box and higher hp Brand New Spindle (7.5hp instead of the 5hp) with limited down time...I went for it being backed up with work. Unfortunately it didn't work out quite that way taking over two weeks as Factory made some blunders. Should have dragged machine out and bought another used one for immediate delivery...Or hired someone to redo gearbox...but hindsight is 20/20 and dam machine worked perfectly otherwise. Tight, holds size with good finish...knew what I had and went for the repair.

Excellent job on yours! you saved some big $$$

Wish I had the time and insight on what to expect as I would have done mine. What was the issue once inside? Just the bearings were bad??? really...that just hurts.

Best of luck with rebuild!

These Ol' machines do machine really well.
My Freakin Ol' Vintage machine just keeps on running strong...I just closed on a new replacement for mine yesterday, but today back to thinking of keeping her as an extra spindle. Said that three or four purchases ago...but now really running out of room...actually ran out of room. Hate to get rid of a great running machine for peanuts. Maybe I can find a place to squeeze it in.
 
Thanks for the replacement cost figures.. I had read that somewhere but wasn't sure where to get my hands on it.. yes, it was just the bearings.. it sounds alot better now.. I had the time on my hands to do this, total time was approximatly two weeks.. one week for the bearings and seals to come in.
I keep picking little projects on this machine and doing what I can to do the repairs my self.. I should see about finding a manual for this model.

Replacing the broken side window next.. last person that owned it fixed it with duct tape..
 
Side windows are frustrating to put in...especially if the rubber molding is old and deteriorating away from coolant. Black gunk rubs off on your hands that gets over everything, chips are embedded in the soft molding that rip into your fingers. New molding is stiff, miserable to pry around plexiglass window in as it pushes out from outside when your inside. But life is much better when done.

I'd like to think mine had an issue with gears and that I would not have had time to make or have made in time since Haas was not supplying. Being backed up with work on several machines...being down 2-3 was not an economical sound choice when I got started. As it turned out, I had a customer put a hold on one job and they never knew I couldn't produce for the two weeks I was down.

Those little projects add up and keep them running well. Best thing we did was new wipers on the way covers and clean out all that old gunk that sat in there. I need new Acrylic doors as mine came in cracked. Time hasn't made them any better...especially when guys hang on them like a dead bug on a windshield.

Good machine, she runs daily. Usually simple and secondary jobs as memory is limited, especially CAM generated programs. I wanted to upgrade memory...but nothing was compatible and to revamp it all was ridiculous.
 
I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the pic of the flashlight!

LOL!


-----------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
The flashlight was the closest thing I had without having to drag out my saw and saw off a piece of pvc tubing to fit over the shaft. :)
it worked like a champ.. pluse it gave me an excuse to change the batteries.. it was almost dead.
 
i need to do this probably on mine. I have 3 spare gear boxes, and two spare spindles.

Any chance you might have a list of all what you ordered?
 
Thanks, Your experience really helped me pull apart a gearbox. The Gearbox can be repaired if you have the proper pullers and knowledge. The cost of repair is much less than the purchase of a gearbox. The use of the machines has risen to numerous shops and the repair of the Haas by rebuilders will be needed. We can help give us a shout, Thanks again.
 
Thanks, Your experience really helped me pull apart a gearbox. The Gearbox can be repaired if you have the proper pullers and knowledge. The cost of repair is much less than the purchase of a gearbox. The use of the machines has risen to numerous shops and the repair of the Haas by rebuilders will be needed. We can help give us a shout, Thanks again.


:scratchchin:


-------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 








 
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