Quick change gear box clatter.

[jamiesaun]

Sup dudes.

I have a 12x36 Chinese lathe with a quick change gear box. It's a Birmingham. The gearbox makes a pretty awful noise in a few of the ranges. A clatter or clashing type noise, and it's a pretty continuous noise, both while driving the carriage and not driving it. I assume it's a problem associated with those particular gears, but I was wondering if anybody has seen this before. That would be awesome to know before I take it apart and see what's going on.

Thanks guys.

 

[just old al]

Were it me I'd be looking at those gears for item in or on the teeth, or misshapen teeth. That sounds like the mesh is binding and releasing under power, causing the rattling.

Put the gearbox in those gears, and not under power but by hand rotate the input gear and see if you can feel any change in the driving force.

 

[jamiesaun]

Will do. I assume you mean to disengage the gears below the spindle before I do? Or actually I guess I could just put the spindle in neutral with the speed levers?

The main problem I can see I'm going to have with this is I can't take the cover off and inspect it while it's in gear at the same time. Since the cover has the notches that hold it in gear, once I take the cover off, I can't put it in gear anymore. So I guess I'll just have to figure out exactly which gears make the noise, then take the cover off and get a look at 'em.

By the way, it kinda sounds like a gear is loose on the shaft or something, but I don't really know, that's just a guess.

 

[jamiesaun]

Obviously this lathe in new to me. I just recently upgraded from a 10x22.