IH Gasket Repair help

[mattinaustin]

Hello everybody, this is my first post here so I hope I am not covering something that has already been done before. I did a search, but couldn't find any info on this topic. Here goes...

I just recently purchased the IH mill from Aaron and it had a couple of problems. One was that oil was dripping form the spindle, especially once the mill was running for a while. It will spit oil out and fling it everywhere if the spindle is moving fast enough. Once I got a hold of Aaron he suggested that I could check the seals at the top of the spindle and the gasket for the flange that holds the seals in there. It was a little more challenging than I thought, but I was able to get the top plate off of the head and see the top seal. It was messed up, but I am not sure if it was done in the process of removing the top plate or if that is what was wrong all along. Anyway, Aaron suggested I change both seals and put some RTV around the flange gasket while I was in there. He sent me 2 seals priority mail and I got them yesterday. The problem is in doing the flange gasket repair. I can not remove the flange because the top gear on one of the gear trees is in the way. If I could drop the spindle spline low enough then I could slide the flange away, but for the life of me I can not figure that out. Aaron mentioned that I just need to remove the spindle spring and a bolt and that would let me drop the spindle, but I wasn't able to get a hold of him yesterday or today to get more detail. I tried removing the entire spindle lowering/raising assembly, but there is only so far the spindle will drop and that little bit poking out of the top of the flange just barely keeps me from getting the flange off. I would really like to get this fixed this weekend and wonder if any of you have gone through the same thing and have some advice??

I either need to remove gear tree that is closest to the flange, or drop the spindle low enough to get the flange off. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!
--Matt

[wildcat]

Sorry, I cannot help but I wondered if you would be able to post a few pictures of the interior of the head. Might be interesting for others to see. Shoot, post a few pictures of your repair as well.

[mattinaustin]

Yeah, a picture would certainly help. Here is one with the damaged top seal in view. You can see the flange right in the middle, the spindle spline is poking up through it. Since this pic was taken, I have removed the drawbar and moved the spindle down as far as it will go so that the top is just about flush with the top of the flange plate (or whatever it is called). Still can't quite get it off with that gear in the way.

--Matt

[widgitmaster]

http://www.use-enco.com/Machinery/105-1145.pdf

Is this the same mill?

[mattinaustin]

Close...its a Rong Fu knock off as well. In that head diagram, the seals that are being replaced are numbered 135 and the gasket is 131 (I believe).

[widgitmaster]

Originally Posted by mattinaustin Close...its a Rong Fu knock off as well. In that head diagram, the seals that are being replaced are numbered 135 and the gasket is 131 (I believe).

Go to the www.use-enco.com web site, they have more manuals on their home page! You might find one closer!

Good luck!
Eric

[mattinaustin]

Thanks, but I have the manual. I just don't know what method to use to either break the seal on the bearing that the gear tree sits in or figuring out some other way to get that flange removed. At this point I am looking for help on the method to remove it and that is not in the manual.

Thanks for you help though!

--Matt

[philbur]

Looks to me like item 69 may be an external snap ring on the sleeve, to limit its travel. If this is the case it seems that you will have to pull the obstructing gears before you can remove the offending bearing flange.

Regards
Phil

Originally Posted by widgitmaster http://www.use-enco.com/Machinery/105-1145.pdf Is this the same mill?

[Runner4404spd]

my spindle seal was damaged as well. i was able to remove the spring that was messing it up and its a little loose but holds oil in better. do you have the part number for the oil seal at the top of the spindle? can you post it here?

i would try unwinding the spring, its the chrome plated cover opposite the handle. that may let you bring it down a little more. it would make sense that there is a snap ring minimizing travel. i haven't really dove that deep into this mill yet.

[MAX711]

There are 2 grub screws (one locking the other) in a threaded hole in the side of the head casting. There is also a keyway in the spindle outer sleeve that the grub screws project into and limit the travel. If you remove the coiled spring (chrome thing on side) and the grub screws, the spindle will drop all the way down. The coil spring is tightly wound and gets tighter the further down the spindle is so remove it with the spindle near the top of its travel. You'll also need to withdraw the quill handle through the right side of the head.

Hope that helps.

[philbur]

mattinaustin said in his first post "I tried removing the entire spindle lowering/raising assembly" which I guess means he has removed the spring.

Regards
Phil

Originally Posted by MAX711 There are 2 grub screws (one locking the other) in a threaded hole in the side of the head casting. There is also a keyway in the spindle outer sleeve that the grub screws project into and limit the travel. If you remove the coiled spring (chrome thing on side) and the grub screws, the spindle will drop all the way down. The coil spring is tightly wound and gets tighter the further down the spindle is so remove it with the spindle near the top of its travel. You'll also need to withdraw the quill handle through the right side of the head. Hope that helps.

[MAX711]

Originally Posted by philbur mattinaustin said in his first post "I tried removing the entire spindle lowering/raising assembly" which I guess means he has removed the spring. Regards Phil

Thanks Phil, I can now see that I instructed mattinaustin to duplicate work he had already done. Hopefully I didn't confuse him too much. The important part of my post was the first part which talks about the hidden grub screws, they are very easy to miss because they are at the bottom of a dark hole and there's 2 of them. You remove one thinking the spindle will now move, but it doesn't because there's another one further in the hole. I suspect that might be the problem mattinaustin is having.