The secret to the whole procedure is the sleeve pictured in the pics below. I machined the outside diameter to be just smaller (.001 or .002) than the inside diameter of the nut with the balls installed. The inside diameter of the sleeve is a two step... first I bored the hole to slip over the screw snout then enlarged one end of the bore to fit over the bearing shoulder. My ball screw is the internal recirculating type. the procedure is to load the nut with all the balls in the proper tracts. Be sure not to have any balls in the void areas. When you load the balls it you will be able to tell where they don't belong. Use petrolium jelly to hold them in place. To get the balls in the nut I used a very small stick with petrolium on the end to hold the ball as I placed it in the nut. When all the balls are loaded carefully slide the sleeve into the nut. It took me several tries to slide it in without knocking any balls out. Alright now.., stop the snickering, this is serious stuff. With the sleeve in the nut slide the sleeve over the snout and the bearing shoulder up to the start of the screw. Start turning the screw into the nut and as the screw enters the nut it will push out the sleeve. Be sure to hold the sleeve tight to the screw as you turn or you may lose some of the balls. I got lucky and got it to work the first time. If you get the screw all the way thru without bringing any balls with it you are home free. When you are thru the screw should turn smooth as silk. If not something went wrong and you will have to start over. I hope this helps somebody. My heart sank when I found out what a mistake I had made but thanks to Ed at Mechanical Maintenance I was able repair my error. The pics below show the sleeve on the screw with the nut already installed. one of the pics shows the sleeve back aways from the bearing shoulder, another shows the sleeve up against the screw. Jack |