[TowerTalk] Rotor disassembly

[David Hachadorian]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Burke" <k7rb at tantella.com>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 6:48 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Rotor disassembly


> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to refurbish a very old Ham-M rotor. The previous owner
> managed to remove one of the 4 bolts holding the housing halves 
> together
> and torqued the heads off two others. I managed to torque the head 
> off
> the remaining bolt.

I'll bet someone used permanent Loctite on those bolts. I think you 
should buy a new upper housing. It's not a bad idea to buy that 
housing anyway, because those four bolts are self-tapping and manage 
to ream out a little aluminum each time they are removed. After a few 
disassembly cycles, the bolts start unscrewing themselves up on the 
tower, which produces an embarrassing failure mode, with the antenna 
spinning in the wind, and the lower (brake) housing sitting directly 
on the rotor shelf!


It seems like the two halves of the housing should
> come apart now but I've been bathing it with WD-40 for a couple 
> weeks
> and banging on the housing with a hammer, but can't get the two 
> halves
> to separate. They must be really corroded together.
>
> I've also managed to break a couple of screw extractors trying the 
> get
> the headless bolts out.

Maybe the screw heads didn't break off completely? Anyway, once you've 
make the decision to buy a new upper housing, you can attack the old 
one in a destructive manner. It's only aluminum. You'll get it apart. 
How about putting a nail set on one of those broken screws and giving 
it a big whap with a hammer?

Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, AZ