I've been getting a bit of a rattle on my Myford Super7B at high speeds, and it appears to be due to play between the backgear/bullwheel and the main v-cone pulley assembly. I'm assuming that this means wear in either the backgear key, the bore for the key in the bullwheel or the corresponding rebate in the v-cone pulley. Is this a common wear mode?
To investigate I will obviously have to remove the spindle, which looks simple enough to do if the exploded diagram is accurate - it looks like I just unclamp and then remove the end adjusting collar, push the spindle through towards the bed end with a piece of wooden dowel (to catch all the pulleys/spacers etc) and then curse and shout a lot while I search through the accumulated swarf for the two woodruff keys I forgot to keep an eye out for.
I note the angular contact bearings are pre-loaded, but as far as I can see I don't need to unclamp those just to take the spindle out - is this correct? If so does that mean for reassembly I re-insert the spindle and just wind the clamped adjuster finger-tight to remove any play and then clamp it?
Finally - if the wear is in the backgear key or the bullwheel it looks like I can get replacements (although the bulwheel is a bit pricey), but there don't seem to be any new V-cone pulley assemblies around. If the wear is in that I guess I'm looking at some sort of bushing or remetalling job. Has anyone ever done this?
AS