Bridgeport Quill Clockspring..?

Please note, I replaced a clock spring with one from H&W Machine. It will work, BUT, the quality is not as good as original. There are specific instructions on how much tension to apply when installing these. Too much tension and the handle moves up, not correct, and not enough and it falls, too little tension. The spring itself did not fail, but the housing that held the spring failed. It was a clear design change.
 
Thank you. I considered this. It looks different from the clock spring/case on our BP.
Do you know if they sell the spring by itself? $30 does seem low for a BP part.
We're tearing down the BP for a major over-haul, so a lot of parts are in order.
They should just buy a better BP. There are so many available now in Long Island,
but the dealers buy them up fast. This is a 1982 era BP vari J head. It just needs some TLC.
Thanks to all the great people here. This place is the best.
 
That's fine. We can remove and transfer it. It will already be wound up for us.
Thanks
 
Well sort of, the new spring does not attach to the new housing like the old spring does. New housing is aluminum, old = steel. New housing spring is folded over to grasp aluminum housing, but lip in housing not strong enough to hold that much tension. See below photo.
new clock spring.jpg

Old housing had spring riveted to housing and still holds. See photo below
old clock spring.jpg


My fix was to machine the new aluminum housing and leave a meatier tab that would hold the spring better and be less prone to breakage.
Now the blue housing is the aluminum/new one, so I machined the broken crap out and the moved over and cut a step about .06 deep to allow the spring to have more meat to grab onto, sorry like a dummy I did not take a picture of that.
The spring , well this one was NOT tempered at that end so bending it was quite easy...and again I am an idiot and did not take a picture of it.

Please note while the quill WILL go down 5 inches or so, remember the farther you drop it down the tighter and more tension goes on the spring and THAT is why the new ones fail. So try to avoid using the full legth of travel. There is your .02 cent tip :)
 
Excellent write up. Thank you. I haven't disassembled the old SC housing yet, so we'll see if the old CS can be repaired. I prefer to use the original housing and get a better spring that will fit. Thank you.
 
Back
Top