Just got an Index 645...

The service manual I have, shows a fairly clear picture of the retainer nut p/n 1133. There's also a washer p/n 1482 that is used. I suggest using a brass or aluminum bronze washer, not 660 bronze. This will help making up and breaking out things. On mine, the end of the spindle was damaged, been hit on too many times and the threads damaged. The nut was missing as well as the draw bar, like on yours. I machined the remaining threads completely off, beveled the inside edge with a healthy bevel. Made a spacer that registered on the bevel and face of spindle, then made a brass thrust washer to ride between the bushing and the nut. Made a draw bar from a piece of drill rod, you can use just about anything you want as long as it is good straight material. Any cold rolled bar material will work.
 
A brief update from today. I've been shooting some PBlaster on the ram ways for the last few days in hopes that will help free up the ram. No luck yet, but I just re-read Ken's suggestion and realized I haven't hit it from the side. I will have to give that a try.

In more exciting news, I actually ran it and made holes with it today! I have some stuff that I make that requires putting ~2" holes in 1/8" steel tubing. My current drill press (Powermatic 1150) only goes down to about 450rpm, which is way too fast for that size hole saw. So I thought I may as well see how the 645 does on that job on a piece of scrap tubing. And the answer is, wonderfully! Far less drama than doing it w/ the drill press. I have it running at the 145rpm setting, used the power downfeed, and it just plain worked with no fuss whatsoever. Also gave me a much nicer finish on both the top and underside of the tubing. So I'm pretty pleased with that.

I did encounter one puzzler that I'm sure someone here can shed some light on. I also tried just a plain twist drill - about 3/8", don't remember exactly - and the power downfeed kicked out way before it had hit the vertical stop that is supposed to kick it out. I think it was probably right around when the full diameter of the drill got into the metal. I recall someone mentioning in another thread there is an adjustment for the downfeed clutch, is that what I need here? Possibly related, are these little shims supposed to be like this?

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Those 'shims' act as a spring to keep the clutch engaged. You can adjust the tension by turning the nut underneath them. It has a set screw that may have come out and allowed it to loosen. When I get home this evening, I'll take a pic of the clutch adjustment instructions from my manual.
 
I've had another couple of thoughts.

1) Was the clutch slipping, or did the clutch handle actually trip? If it tripped, the problem may not be in how it is adjusted. One possibility is a broken spring in the clutch latch. Does the clutch engage and disengage crisply, or does it take some fiddling?

2) This is unrelated to your present problem, but have you checked the oil in the spindle feed gearbox? (The sight glass on the side). The early 645's like yours and mine had oil in the upper half of the gear box, while the later ones were packed with grease.
 
TJ - As near as I could tell, the clutch was not slipping. It just tripped on the 3/8" drill bit, but not on the 2" hole saw. The only fiddling I have to do is to actually get the feed to engage. It's not that the yellow handle above is hard to push in, but it's sort of a balancing act between keeping it pushed in and turning that L-shaped lever to lock it. I just assumed that's normal - I'm already better at it now than I was last week! But it disengages quickly and without drama.

I have not checked the oil levels - I've looked at the sight glasses, but they are so yellowed / dirty / whatever that they're not much good at the moment. At some point I need to at least pull the sight glasses and clean them up so they're actually functional.

EZ - no argument there, it's on the list. My understanding is it's less of a manual and more of an exploded parts diagram though. No?
 
Here's the actual clutch adjustment instructions from the manual. The instructions for adjusting the quill counterbalance spring are there too.

When engaging the clutch, it should latch by itself without having to mess with the trip lever. The fact that you're having to fiddle with the lever makes me suspicious that the spring inside is either broken or missing. Take the latch housing off and have a look. There should be a crescent shaped leaf spring behind the square shaft that pushes it out (toward you if you're standing in front of the machine).

If it's indeed missing, it should be fairly inexpensive from W-I. Alternatively, it probably wouldn't be hard to make one if you had some of the right spring steel stock laying around.

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A brief update from today. I've been shooting some PBlaster on the ram ways for the last few days in hopes that will help free up the ram. No luck yet, but I just re-read Ken's suggestion and realized I haven't hit it from the side. I will have to give that a try......................

I doubt PB Blaster is going to break that loose, don't hurt to try. Another thing to do is at the top of the dovetail is fill it with some good oil like a ISO 46 grade hydraulic oil, from end to end on both dovetails. Let it soak a few days with the bolts loose. Every other day add some more oil. Do this for a couple of weeks. This give it a chance to soak into the dovetail. No promise it will get all the way to the bottom, some oil will penetrate down. At the end of two weeks, try to crank it first, don't force it! If it don't move then hit the sides with a 4 x 4 and sledge. If it still don't move soak more oil on the dovetail. Rather than using PB Blaster, try some Liquid Wrench penetrating oil. Might try that every other day along with oil treatment. It'll eventually break loose.
 
+1 on what Ken said above but with the little tweak of a "homemade" penetrating oil of 50% acetone and 50% Automatic Transmission Fluid (aka ATF). This stuff is so thin it wicks in almost anywhere and leaves the oil behind. I'd swear it migrates uphill!
-brino
 
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