Bogieman
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Status Replies posted by Bogieman
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Hi Bogieman, saw you post re WP36 gearbox. Sorry we have been so hard to get hold of. It does not help you but our parts chap got head hunted and we have not been able find a worthwhile replacement. Still interviewing etc, it's really frustrating to let people down and we are trying our best to get back to everyone asap. But truth is we are struggling. I did speak to Pete at Strathbogie forest & garden about this gearbox so I don't know why he has not got back to you. I explained we have never split a gearbox and Farmi's answer was to fit a new gearbox. We have them on the shelf but I appreciate you may want to save some loot and try and repair the old box. Rgds, Stephen Cabrol. Riko UK Ltd.
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Hi Stephen,
Yes, I was aware that you were having some staffing problems.
Pete and Bob at Strathbogie have been doing their best to help, in fact the gearbox and pump is with them just now. Fitting a new gearbox would be a solution, albeit an expensive and unnecessary one as we can easily fit new bearings, they're simply standard open ballraces, but the major problem at the moment is the fact that we can't separate the pump from the box.The hollow splined shaft which takes the drive from the gearbox to the pump has been machined down at both ends to fit inside the bearings, and is attached at the pump end by an internal bolt. So far it has proved to be impossible to find a socket with a thin enough wall to fit inside the shaft and loosen this nut. Strathbogie don't have one, and neither do I. They have been in touch with the pump manufacturers to see if they have any suggestions. No doubt Special Tool No. abcxyz999!
They have done this job on previous occasions, but have never come across this problem before, the shaft has always been free to move, not bolted in place. Turning down a splined shaft to fit into a ballrace seems an odd engineering practice, why not use either bearings that fit the shaft or a shaft that fits the bearings in the first place? It almost seems as though they just use whatever happened to be on the parts shelf at the time, so that no two machines are necessarily the same. Shades of old Massey combines!
Once the box was split, incidentally, it became obvious why the bearing had gone. No oil!! The machine is about 3 years old, and I must admit I've never checked the gearbox oil level. Presumably it was full when new, otherwise we'd have been at this stage a long time ago. I never saw any sign of oil leakage, but there is a theory about where it went. The oil level plug on the side of the box doubles up as the breather, so is it possible that the oil, when hot, exited via the breather? It could have done so very gradually over the years and mingled unnoticed with the sawdust. At any rate the box will be getting refitted with the filler and breather plugs swapped over, and the level checked on a regular basis.
Hopefully back in production shortly.
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