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Re: [TowerTalk] US Tower 72 ft crank up grinds to a standstill

To: FritzOAQ <fritz@k4oaq.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] US Tower 72 ft crank up grinds to a standstill
From: Ron WV4P <wv4ptn@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 May 2020 19:47:01 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
If another neighbor is an AC Guy... go get a Run Cap for your motor from
him.
Ron, WV4P

On Tue, 26 May 2020 at 19:38, FritzOAQ <fritz@k4oaq.com> wrote:

> Many tks to you all fer all the suggestions & help.
> Facts I shud have included in my original post:
> Tower is 20 yrs old.
> The only maint I've done is to change the belt that started slipping.
> The rotor is a Yaesu G-2800DXA.
> The suggestion that seemed most likely to be the problem was that the oil
> had drained out of the gear box.
> So, I did some reading & learning abt gear boxes.
> I discovered I had to get my neighbor who runs a machine shop to grind 1/8
> inch or so off an Allen wrench
> so it wud fit in that little small spot to loosen the gear box drain.
> I tried spraying PB Blaster on it the best I cud. Apparently I shud have
> waited a few days before trying to loosen it.
> I now have an Allen wrench a very artist twist and the opinion there's no
> way to get the drain loose.
> A hammer rather than a paint brush was needed to perform my art work.
> I'm anxiously awaiting suggestions of how to turn the tower upside down to
> drain the oil out of the top hole.
> So, moving right along, I assumed the oil didn't need to be drained &
> filled the oil to the top. I saw no holes on the side to determine when it
> was full,
> so I assumed it was full when it ran over. I'm not sure how much went in
> but I wud gess between 1/8 to 1/4 of a cup.
> I wasn't all that hopeful that that wud fix the prob & sure enuf, prob not
> solved.
> It occurred to me to take the belt off & see if I cud turn by hand.
> To my surprise I was able to - it was hard to turn it in the direction of
> "up" but I cud see the tower going up as I turned.
> I turned it up & down a number of turns thinking that the oil needed
> swishing around in the gear box.
> So, back to raising the tower & to my surprise, it started going up. I had
> to stop it abt 3/4 of the way up to untangle the coax.
> When I restarted it on up, back to the same prob. I got my wife to flip
> the switch while I prodded the pulley wheel with a piece of wood to start
> it moving.
> After 4-5 "shoves" it started on up & is now sitting at 72 ft ... shud I
> leave it there til I die??? Sorry, that's a bad joke these days.
> After all this I noticed oil had come out of the top of the gear box. I
> did have the cap on tightly.
> One of you suggested a weight issue & provided me with the following info.
> "From what I understand, UST rates the 72 foot crank up towers at 200 lbs
> of antenna(s), rotor and mast, bearing etc weight with 22 lbs of cable
> weight, 222lbs max vertical dead weight.  The DB36 weighs 165 lbs and the
> tilt plate about 60 lbs. The mast, rotor, bearing, cables etc would be
> additional."
> So, is it the gear box or is it the weight, or both. :)
> Fritz K4OAQ
>
>
>
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