South Bend reversing gear stuck

DonMurray

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Mar 11, 2019
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I am restoring a South Bend 9 and work has stopped due to a stuck reversing gear. It loks like no maintenance was done since the machine was made in 1947. Everything but the final gear on the shaft has disassembled but that gear needs to be pressed off. A mechanic friend tried with his 20 ton press - dyidn't budge. I took it to a local machine shop and they stopped trying when the pressure was nearing a breaking point.
I have to get this apart. It drives the entire gearbox and screw. I can't afford for it to fail. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 
Pictures or it didn't happen.....

We need to see what you are stuck on to be able to help.....
 
Proceed with great caution; busted parts can be a very expensive problem; why does it need to come apart?
 
What part is stuck? The gear to the axle, or the axle to the shifter bracket....or both?
I would drill out the axle to disconnect the parts either way. You will have to recondition the i.d of the gear any way you look at it, and make a new axle.
 

See... $65. Zero reason to mess with the original part if it's that far gone. Practically any part you want for the SB9a is available on ebay.
 
Heat the assembly up with a propane torch. Whenever I have something stuck like you described that’s my next step. I heat it to the point where I can hear the grease pop and smoke. It’s usually all it takes.
There’s another reason to heat and that’s to melt any loctite which previous owner may have used. Heat is recommended procedure to loosen items which had loctite on them. I think the paperwork says to heat to around 250 degrees.
 
Heat the assembly up with a propane torch. Whenever I have something stuck like you described that’s my next step. I heat it to the point where I can hear the grease pop and smoke. It’s usually all it takes.
There’s another reason to heat and that’s to melt any loctite which previous owner may have used. Heat is recommended procedure to loosen items which had loctite on them. I think the paperwork says to heat to around 250 degrees.
The heat did it. Thank you Tim.
 
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