[smittys800]

Has anybody replaced the bearings in their Spindle Motor?
Mine are a bit loud, and thought I might give it a try next summer if I can even locate them.
SMitty

[denmar]

//

[denmar]

Remove the 4 long bolts, pry the top cover, thre's one bearing;
remove the pulley,remove the botton cover and ther'e is the
second bearing

[smittys800]

Neil,
Any thoughts on this one?

[hotrob1]

We can do it for you if you do not want to attempt it or we could possibly get you the bearings. Do you have bearing info or motor info available?

-Hotrob1-

www.aa-repair.com

[denmar]

trust me

[smittys800]

At this time, just something I was thinking about. I can get you the info off the motor later tonight

[FastFieros]

Denmar, can you direct me to the bearings for the spindle?

[denmar]

SPINDLE BEARINGS ARE MORE COMPLICATED; NEED SPECIAL TOOLS; HAVE TO
PRELOAD THE BEARINGS AFTHER INSTALETION. I WILL SEND IT TO A SPINDLE
REBUILDER TECH.

[carbidecraters]

How do you know its the spindle bearings? Have you checked the idler bearings or the spindle motor itself. Sometimes even the belts can make a loud crackling.

[SBC Cycle]

I thought I had a spindle bearing out on my machine. Turned out it I just had a bad air cylinder on the mechanism that engages the spindle lock. The cylinder wouldn't fully retract so the little bearing was rubbing on the spindle as it was turning. Made a helluva racket for such a tiny bearing.

[smittys800]

When I had the Fadal tech outto help get mine running again, he mentioned that the Spindle motor bearings were the cause of most of my noise. Placing a stethoscope, can hear the bearings then. The spindle itself is fine.
Smitty

[FastFieros]

How do you know its the spindle bearings? Have you checked the idler bearings or the spindle motor itself. Sometimes even the belts can make a loud crackling.

My belt does make that awlful cracking noise. Moving it from the low torque pulleys to the higher speed pulley set made some of the noise go away. I have an older VMC15 with some strange setup that not even Eagle machine, FadalCNC, and others I have called and emailed can sell me a belt without me sending them a picture of the setup. Its a 6 or 8 ribs, about 3 inch wide single belt. My gosh, how hard is that to figure out when most all the designs I see are 2 belts with air cylinders that move a hi and low position. Mine cannot move a hi and low. I have to move the belt by hand. ONE belt. 3 inches wide.. anyone have the gates part number for that? I want to buy one today.

I have 2 spindles in my shop. They are cores from other machine shops. One turns better than my spindle in my machine. Not sure the bearings are really bad in that one. Maybe they are noise and bad at 6k and above which I never run above 3500.

I am a master mechanic. I can setup difs, manual transmissions, auto, you name I have the dial indicator and knowledge on how to use. Sure, we tell our customers to, " you dont have the right tool and knowledge to properly preload that bearing and setup the spacers in that dif... and oh, its really really heavy if you drop it on your foot, it is going to crush your foot" ... sure, we give them that same song and dance. you know what, we are right in saying that.. but, if that person really wants to learn to remove their diff, setup the bearings, shim it correctly, more power to them. I will help them find the right bearings because its the right thing to do. Then 4 days later when they come in and say they cannot succeed, it is easy for them to fork over that $1000 I wanted to charge to rebuild the diff with $100 set of bearings.

If I want to take my spindle apart and see what makes it tick, I can promise you I am going to take my spindle apart.

http://www.fastfieros.com/projects

[Delw]

Smitty
spindle MOTOR bearings are extreamly easy to replace, the hardest part is getting the motor off the top of the machine seriously its that easy. onces the motor is on the bench your talking 30 mins to an hour tops.
Also replace the seal, I believe there is one on the bottom by the pulleys its been a while since I dont one.
I replaced lots of spindle motor bearings in all types of machines. they are all the same.

The bearings are avail through most bearing house's in major cities, also NAPA can get them for you, they are NOT a special bearing.
just make sure you get the coorect bearing number, I always wait till I have the motor apart cause sometimes when I have had to order bearings someone says xxx number when I get it apart its xxx^ number.

Delw

[smittys800]

Thanks for the advice. Once I get through this winter, might be a good summer project!
Smitty