South Bend reversing gear stuck

[jcmullis2]

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.

I use “freeze your nuts off” with barrels that won’t come off. It shrinks the metal and has penetrating fluid that helps. I’ve had barrels that wouldn’t budge with a 4ft cheater bar. Then I sprayed it with the freeze your nuts off and could almost unscrew by hand.
Shrink the shaftwith the freeze or swell the gear with heat from a torch. That’s all I can think of besides breaking it and making another if none are available. Good luck

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Agreed.
Liquid Nitrogen is not on the normal "go to" list for me.....but I'm always on the lookout for new techniques!

-brino

freeze off like ^ said or in a pinch you can use an air duster spray held upside down. If you're working with something stuck I always do several cycles of heat and cold. That does a great job of crushing any corrosion or rust into dust so that it doesn't jam up the threads. Did that not too long ago on the bottom cap of a bike suspension seatpost. Worked a dream, which was great as the only other option was to drill it out and make a new one!

 

[Ezra_Walker]

I use “freeze your nuts off” with barrels that won’t come off. It shrinks the metal and has penetrating fluid that helps. I’ve had barrels that wouldn’t budge with a 4ft cheater bar. Then I sprayed it with the freeze your nuts off and could almost unscrew by hand.
Shrink the shaftwith the freeze or swell the gear with heat from a torch. That’s all I can think of besides breaking it and making another if none are available. Good luck

Agreed, in during my time living and working in far northern Alaska and Canada things rust, deteriorate and get hopelessly stuck. We, indeed, had much experience in freezing our nuts off..then using a torch to expand outer layers so that they would not shatter when ‘percussive persuasion’ was applied.