10k
Plastic
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2012
- Location
- Houston, Texas, USA
The back gear slings oil out when I run the lathe. What a mess! I took it apart (see attached picture). At the bottom of the photo are all the parts I have (other than the pulley). There's a washer-like ring that goes up against the bearing on the bottom left. The next part over looks suspicious. It's a pulley spacer. It's threaded on the inside, and has a keyway. The ID is a bit larger than the shaft; maybe 0.050 or so. The OD is smaller than the hole in the cover plate; again maybe 0.050 or so. Because of the threads on the inside, I'm thinking that it may have been replaced sometime in the past. Because of several marks, hand-made gaskets and a repaired flywheel bore, I know that someone has been in the gearbox before.
I looked over the manual, and I seem to have the right parts. It looks like the way this thing works is that any oil that runs through the bearing hits the large washer-like ring, is slung into a circumferential chamber, and then drains down to the bottom where it runs through a hole back into the oil reservoir in the back gear housing.
When I was working on the back gear, I noticed that there was a gasket installed between the housing and the cover plate. There is a drain below the bearing back into the housing. The gasket covered the drain. I thought that this could be the problem.
So, either the oil was not draining because of the gasket, or it was leaking around the loosely fitting pulley spacer, or I overfilled. Overfilling could have been possible, because it was hard to see through the oil line window. I don't think this was the case, but I cleaned it up so I could see the level better.
I put it back together without the gasket. There was about a 0.02" gap between the housing and the cover plate. This is another place the oil could have been leaking. I made a 1/32" gasket and installed it.
After reassembling everything, I ran the lathe for about 10 minutes. All looked fine. However, when I stopped it, a slug of oil ran out from behind the pulley. Centrifugal force was probably holding it there when it was running. I have not taken it off yet to see if I can see where it's coming from.
Does anyone have any ideas? Should the spacer ring fit better? If so, how much clearance should it have?
Thanks.
I looked over the manual, and I seem to have the right parts. It looks like the way this thing works is that any oil that runs through the bearing hits the large washer-like ring, is slung into a circumferential chamber, and then drains down to the bottom where it runs through a hole back into the oil reservoir in the back gear housing.
When I was working on the back gear, I noticed that there was a gasket installed between the housing and the cover plate. There is a drain below the bearing back into the housing. The gasket covered the drain. I thought that this could be the problem.
So, either the oil was not draining because of the gasket, or it was leaking around the loosely fitting pulley spacer, or I overfilled. Overfilling could have been possible, because it was hard to see through the oil line window. I don't think this was the case, but I cleaned it up so I could see the level better.
I put it back together without the gasket. There was about a 0.02" gap between the housing and the cover plate. This is another place the oil could have been leaking. I made a 1/32" gasket and installed it.
After reassembling everything, I ran the lathe for about 10 minutes. All looked fine. However, when I stopped it, a slug of oil ran out from behind the pulley. Centrifugal force was probably holding it there when it was running. I have not taken it off yet to see if I can see where it's coming from.
Does anyone have any ideas? Should the spacer ring fit better? If so, how much clearance should it have?
Thanks.