Series 1 Gear Noise - High Speed Only - Cog Teeth Alignment ??

D

dansawyer

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I am refirbing a Bridgeport Series 1. I have the Ram - head assembly off and have just completed the head reassembly. There is a definite preiodic noise on high speed. Neutral and Low are wisper quiet, there is not issue there. The noise is speed dependent.
I have tried loosening the three clutch cover bolts and twisting the head. That has a definite impact on the noise, but there is no positon where it is gone.
I have tried loosening the three gear cover bolts and twisting the head. That has a definite impact on the noise, but there is no positon where it is gone.
Based on the above the only parts that are in play in high and not in play in neutral and low are the cog gears between upper drive shaft spindle and the gear spindle. As near as I can see everything else is part of the neutral or low speed drive.
Is there an alignmnet tool to insert between them during assembly?
What am I missing?
Thanks, Dan
BTW it is even impressing in low. :)
 
as a suggestion, have a look at the mechanism that raises and lowers the spindle drive for back gear
there is a ring with 2 slightly helical slots that has a handle protruding from it and 2 slotted pins
if the slots in the ring or the pins are worn, strange noises can emanate
not sayin' this is your problem, but it is worthy or reconnaissance
 
Will be watching this post with interest as I have just (today) discovered that I have the same problem with my series 1.
 
Wear in the driven pulley bearings can cause misalignment of the belt which causes some odd noises, plus noisy bearings themselves. Was pretty bad on mine before I replaced.
 
Lo-Fi said:
Wear in the driven pulley bearings can cause misalignment of the belt which causes some odd noises, plus noisy bearings themselves. Was pretty bad on mine before I replaced.
Click to expand...
Note: I my case there is no noise when in neutral or low. When in neutral the unit simply hums. That exercises the motor, the belt, and the two driven pully bearings. In this case do you believe wear on these bearings can create misalignment with the bull gear assembly in high?
 
I had/have this problem, called H&W, they almost instantly diagnosed it as some $300 part, since it was only present in high gear. They told me that it did not affect performance, so I will wait for another reason to tear things apart.
 
When loosened the three bolts that hold the clutch cover and the three bolts that hold the gear porvide some radial adjustment. This affects the level of the noise substantially.
The upper shaft in question is entirely held in place by the gear cover, and the upper and lower belt housings. There should not be any angular misalignment.
Many posts report a fix by adjusting axial alignment. I have tried adjusting the amount of gear engagement manually. This does not seem to affect the noise.
I am going back to playing with the clutch and gear bolts. I will support the weight of the motor with a hoist and see if there is a way to minimize the noise.
I had this part of the head disassembled ant the two matching cog gear parts seemed to be in very good shape. There was no noticable wear.
 
Barry said the easy way to test this out is to ensure no tool is in your spindle, turn the head on in hi. Using a rag or a glove, grab the spindle. Does the noise go away/is greatly reduced?

If it does, it is worn castle gears.

Jon
 
Thank you for that pointer. Is there anyway to determine if it is the driving gear or the driven gear?
Can worn castle gears be assessed visually?
Mine did not show any obvious signs of wear. Some of the photos show obviously worn edges.
 
The pulley position is different in high gear to low or neutral. This coupled with bearing wear can throw the toothed belt into making some pretty horrendous noises by rubbing where it shouldn't. It's worth noting that high speed clutch alignment can be thrown off by worn bearings and accelerate wear on the castlations. Mine has definitely suffered from this too, I think. I don't get noise now, but there's definitely some play between the pulley and spindle.

Is the pulley bottoming out when high range is engaged? The pins should not sit resting on the slots of the actuation collar.
 
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