Not fair Steve, you've got a real mill there!
Well, I knew things were going too smoothly and something was going to happen.
I went to button up the drive unit today and decided to try cranking the knee up and down by hand first before applying power to the feed. Going up a good distance using the hand wheel was a little awkward but do-able. I decided to leave the crank handle off of the hand wheel because I know I would only end up getting stabbed by it.
Then I tried cranking the knee down and after several turns on the wheel I heard a POP and noticed that a gap appeared between the drive housing and the dial ring. Uh oh..... So I took it all apart again to have a look.
All of a sudden now I can move the shaft in and out through the bearing housing on the knee and hear it going clunk, clunk. I put an indicator on it and found .0123" of end play in the shaft.
At first I thought maybe the shaft had hung up in the bearing bore and the thrust collar didn't get seated against the bearing when I put it back together. I tried to tighten up the extension shaft to pull the jack shaft out further, but they didn't move. On closer examination I found the bearing was sliding back and forth in the housing! Too much clearance between the bearing spacer and the snap ring that retains them in the housing.
I guess I should have left that bearing rusted in place instead of cleaning and repacking it. Sigh....
Oh well. Added a shim under the bearing so that the snap ring is a tight fit against it now, and eliminated the end play in the shaft. Now I get to start all over again adjusting the drive gear backlash on the power feed - tomorrow.
Well, I knew things were going too smoothly and something was going to happen.
I went to button up the drive unit today and decided to try cranking the knee up and down by hand first before applying power to the feed. Going up a good distance using the hand wheel was a little awkward but do-able. I decided to leave the crank handle off of the hand wheel because I know I would only end up getting stabbed by it.
Then I tried cranking the knee down and after several turns on the wheel I heard a POP and noticed that a gap appeared between the drive housing and the dial ring. Uh oh..... So I took it all apart again to have a look.
All of a sudden now I can move the shaft in and out through the bearing housing on the knee and hear it going clunk, clunk. I put an indicator on it and found .0123" of end play in the shaft.
At first I thought maybe the shaft had hung up in the bearing bore and the thrust collar didn't get seated against the bearing when I put it back together. I tried to tighten up the extension shaft to pull the jack shaft out further, but they didn't move. On closer examination I found the bearing was sliding back and forth in the housing! Too much clearance between the bearing spacer and the snap ring that retains them in the housing.
I guess I should have left that bearing rusted in place instead of cleaning and repacking it. Sigh....
Oh well. Added a shim under the bearing so that the snap ring is a tight fit against it now, and eliminated the end play in the shaft. Now I get to start all over again adjusting the drive gear backlash on the power feed - tomorrow.
Willie