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

[Mac]

I'm with WV4P Ron here on the Start/run cap, bought tower new now 2 
years ago, but only this month got it ready to install and raise,  did 
pretty much your same fire drill only i bought the 589, but my point and 
experience, all this time it was laying over, and while we sorta live in 
a not so much rain area but we get a share.

So now when i got the tower up vertical, the tower raising/lowering 
motor sounded like a trash truck i pulled the cap or dome cover off, it 
was covered with rust and water, ouch, it was toast as well centrifugal 
cutout switch inside the motor to disconnect the start cap, and the 
motor while looking good was totally crap and rust, i could have rebuilt 
the motor for my guess 40 or so dollars but i lost interest in the mess 
of it.. I will add a new motor for the specs was like 450.00 but i just 
found a new 3 phase motor for 90 or so and used it..  i had to adapt the 
up/down limit ckt to still function but no other effort was reqd.

bought a new motor and called it good, ah but not done.  When i released 
the belt tension between the original motor and gear box pulley, out 
came a steady drip of gear box oil,  it has to be the stinker stuff ever 
invented and oh what a mess. The Gear Box is a Hub City brand, 60/1 
ratio .. Motion Industries vows from Hub City they dont offer an oil 
seal to purchase, but would cheerfully sell me a new gear box for i 
forget 500-600 dollars. And ur correct, the filler port is so awkward, 
so i plumbed around it and made it more human like to fill and drain if 
it ever comes up again, and hoping it does not.

Long story to close this out my local bearing supply guy got the Gear 
box oil seal for 8.00 all i had to do was service the gear oil and the 
smell again, i left those clothes on the porch and tossed emm, aint no 
way im gonna take the ration of crap from the family for being the guy 
to forever stink up the washing machine to save a shirt and pants, i 
have a washer dryer in my shop, but even the dog wont like that smell 
for her bedding and blankets i usually was out in the barn machines.


On 5/26/2020 7:47 PM, Ron WV4P wrote:
> 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 at 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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