[TowerTalk] Sluggish crank-up tower

[Grant Saviers]

Check ebay for out of production bearings and suppliers of same.  I 
found some for a LM354 that way.  Very unusual bearing/sheave assembly 
marked "Boeing", so Tri-Ex must have bought a bunch of Boeing surplus at 
some time as it definitely is a aircraft control cable sheave.  Pricey 
NOS bearings at $35 each but cheaper than making a new sheave.  Both ID 
and OD of the bearing are unobtainium in a current production bearing.

Grant KZ1W


On 6/20/2014 11:25 AM, Dan Hearn wrote:
> Rick: I replaced the lift cables and pulley bearings on my TX472 by myself
> with the tower in vertical position. I have a note on our club website
> www.SDXA.org describing how I did it. The note is under the heading
> Articals. The real problem was finding bearings. I checked with 2 different
> bearing outfits here and they found that the bearings are no longer
> available. The problem  is that available bearings with the proper OD have
> an ID that is too large. Fortunately one of the guys suggested slipping a
> short piece of bronze sleeve bearing into the available ball bearing to
> fill the space between its ID and the mounting bolt.
>    It was not difficult to press out the old bearings and press in the new
> ones.
>
> 73, Dan N5AR
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 10:58 AM, Rick Stealey <rstealey at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I've been working since I posted.  I found a pulley that is very sluggish.
>>   It cleaned up with WD40 and motor oil and is at least turning, in my hand.
>>   Now to locate proper industrial replacements at a reasonable price.  At
>> least there is a strong possibility that this was the problem.  I need this
>> tower to extend easily cause I want to put some educated aluminum up there !
>>
>> Rick   K2XT
>>
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