Spindle locks when placing Bridgeport 2J into neutral.

NH_eng

NH_eng

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Hello all,
I recently purchased an early 2J Bridgeport, and have just realized that I am not able to put the spindle into neutral in order to sweep an indicator. When I rotate the Hi-Neutral-Low lever to the neutral position, the spindle locks.(motor will not start) I have tried moving it slowly to see if these is a spot where it will drop into neutral, but no luck. I also tried adjusting the lever mounting plate according to the user manual, but that did not help either. Not sure what to try next.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Paul
 
Is your machine a step pulley or variable speed model? My Bridgeport is a vari-speed and if I have that problem I would think it would be an issue with the adjustment of the lever where you set the three positions. Try holding the lever in without letting the pin drop into any of the holes and see if you can find any place in its' travel where you can get a neutral position. It should go into high range if fully forward, neutral somewhere in between and low range when fully up and back. You should be able to find a neutral somewhere in around the middle of the movement.

If you can't, maybe there is something loose or out of position inside your head in the linkage that moves the pinion gear up and down, engaging and disengaging it with the bull gear???

If it's a step pulley unit, I don't know as I never had one of those. My Induma is step pulley but that doesn't have a neutral position in the selector. I could only guess is maybe it could have something to do with the lever up on top of the head??? No idea really...

Ted
 
Hi Ted,

Thanks for the response - its a 2J which is the variable speed. I tried all intermediate positions of the lever - nowhere is neutral to be found. I have a feeling that the small bull gear is out of position - maybe the setscrew was not tight enough when someone last worked on it. At this point, seems I will have to take the head apart and try to find the problem.

Paul
 
NH_eng said:
Hi Ted,

Thanks for the response - its a 2J which is the variable speed. I tried all intermediate positions of the lever - nowhere is neutral to be found. I have a feeling that the small bull gear is out of position - maybe the setscrew was not tight enough when someone last worked on it. At this point, seems I will have to take the head apart and try to find the problem.

Paul
Click to expand...
I've refurbished two of these vari-speed heads and that could very well be it. Let me ask you this: can you run it in both high and low range? If so, that would mean that the small gear is moving over its' full range and neutral should be in the middle...

If you disassemble, I highly recommend checking the plastic bushings for the vari-speed pulley shafts. These are very thin and if allowed to go bad can cause very costly damage to both the shafts and pulley bores. They are fairly inexpensive and easy to change. I got some from H&W. Go there for some awesome videos for working on these machines!

www.youtube.com

H&W Machine Repair and Rebuilding

Since 1982 H&W Machine Repair & Rebuilding has been providing machinery sales, repairs, rebuilds and parts for the metalworking industry. On this page you wi...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Ted
 
Ted,

Thanks for the info. Hi and Low both work, but somehow, no neutral in middle. Thanks for the tip on the bushings. I already watched some vids from H&W, and I have the "stand" to support the head on the table, so I am going to tear into it later today. Wish me luck. :)

Paul
 
NH_eng said:
Ted,

Thanks for the info. Hi and Low both work, but somehow, no neutral in middle. Thanks for the tip on the bushings. I already watched some vids from H&W, and I have the "stand" to support the head on the table, so I am going to tear into it later today. Wish me luck. :)

Paul
Click to expand...
Please keep us updated because this sounds like an interesting problem (from the bleachers anyways ;)).

Ted
 
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Barry says it sounds like your small bull gear is too high.

I wish I could explain more, but the head repairs/rebuilds go right over my head.

You can always call and talk to him if you want.

Jon
 
Hi Jon,
Based on watching vids from H&W, I have to agree. According to the person I bought it from, he recently did a bearing, belt, and bushing replacement, so he may have assembled the small bull gear incorrectly. This was his first rebuild, so it increases the likelihood of such an error. Was going to tear down yesterday, but just caught a bad cold, so it many be anther day or two. I will report back on my findings.

Thanks for your input,

Paul
 
Hi guys,

OK - opened up the 2J head today and made some interesting observations.

1. The first thing that seemed strange was the wear on the thin plate that covers the bull gear area. There are lots of cuts in the plate caused by the lower belt. This would indicate that the lower belt was riding too low in back gear. It appears that this is due to synchronization issue with the splines on the shaft connected to the Hi-Neutral-Lo lever. It was driving the main bull gear too low. Please correct me is this assumption is false.
(edit: OK, this conclusion makes no sense. There is apparently another issue which I need to look into)
IMG_2834.JPG

2. Next I noticed that the small bull gear was higher than the main bull gear when in backgear. See image below. As I understand it, the small bull gear should be lower than the main bull gear when in backgear. Yes, no?
IMG_2824.JPG

3. When in backgear, there was excessive friction load on the main bull gear from below. This would seem to indicate improper synchronization between the hi-neut-low selector and the spline that it engages.

4. The small bull gear top bearing (right side in photo below) was touching the small bull gear, causing friction between the gear and the bearing. At the same time, the gear was riding substantially above the lower bearing. This was causing the small bull gear to be engaged with the large bull gear when the spindle should have been in neutral.
IMG_2828.JPG

Based on these observations it seems my corrective actions should be :
1) re-synchronize the spline on the hi-neut-lo shaft to raise the bull gear enough so that it spins smoothly when in backgear. (I tried this by rotating the gear shift lever a bit, and there was big improvement)
2) move the small bull gear lower on its shaft so that it is not engaged when the hi-neut-lo lever in in neutral. This should also eliminate the friction between the gear and the upper bearing. Shown is the result of that move. Note the gap between the gear and the upper bearing on the right. MY BIG CONCERN is: why is the upper end of the key exposed as seen in the photo below. It appears that whoever touched this last move the gear to completely cover the key. NOT SURE EXACTLY WHERE TO POSITION THE GEAR ON THE SHAFT.
IMG_2829.JPGIMG_2830.JPG

3) position the top bearing on the small bull gear shaft to properly engage the bearing cover. (no clue how to determine this)

Any and all feedback welcome.

Thanks,
Paul
 
Last edited:
Barry read it and has been saying things that are just over my head. I would recommend calling and asking him, cause he says you are overthinking alot of it.

What I did understand of what he told me is that the belt line/groove is a normal occurance.

Jon
 
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