Just bought a 1977 Victor 1630 and it has no drain plugs or sight glasses!

[gadjeep]

I'm so glad I found this sub forum! I just bought a 1977 Victor 1630, and the only sight glass and drain plug I can find is for the head stock. I've looked at a ton of pictures of similar models and mine just didn't write jive with them. Most of them seem to have a drain plug next to the 1-8 lever on the gearbox with a sightglass above and to the left while mine has none. Most have an auto oiler knob and sightglass on the apron while mine does not. Does anyone else suffer from this issue?

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to pull the front cover on the gearbox to drain and install fill/drain plugs but I'm not clearly seeing how the levers come off. I'm leaning toward the belief that they stay with the cover and are held from the inside but I'd love to hear from someone who's done it before I spring a mousetrap!

Thanks!

 

[Martin W]

Should be a nice lathe.Congratulations
Is there a plug where the sight glass goes? Maybe it leaked and someone stuck a plug in there instead?
Martin

 

[gadjeep]

Should be a nice lathe.Congratulations
Is there a plug where the sight glass goes? Maybe it leaked and someone stuck a plug in there instead?
Martin

Thanks! I'm really enjoying it aside from these annoying issues I mentioned. Yes, I checked all of those spots and found no sign of "improvised" repairs.

 

[sdelivery]

Look further. I think there is a drain plug behind the gears, well sorta.

 

[gadjeep]

Look further. I think there is a drain plug behind the gears, well sorta.

Behind the change gears? I'll check again tomorrow, thanks. Have you ever pulled the cover from the gearbox?

 

[gadjeep]

Update!

So I pulled the cover off the gearbox and it was no big deal. All of the handles and selectors stay right on the cover and there are no loose parts during disassembly.

Looks as though my machine, being an early model from 1977 is designed as a total loss lube system for the feed box and the apron. I think from 79-on they were built with sump oiling in the gearbox and sump oiling/auto way oiling in the apron. My machine has a couple of holes in the gearbox that oil would eventually spill out of, once it got a couple of inches deep. It is also fitted with double, rubber sealed bearings. My plan was initially to try and retrofit it to a sump style but I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze. One of the leak points would be pretty challenging to remedy without pulling the gearbox off and disassembling a portion of it.