Strip/renew bearings on Viceroy lathe!

[RodT]

Hi, I would appreciate any guidance and tips on checking and replacing the headstock bearings on my metric screw cutting Viceroy. No model plate, only a serial number on the bed. My greasing of the headstock bearing now produces greyish grease from the nose bearing.
Some swarf did find its way behind the chuck and unto the gap between spindle and bearing cap, though I pulled out as much as I could. So I suspect it is time to take a look in there. If I do this, I may as well go the whole hog...

This was an ex-school lathe bought about 10 years ago and apart from regular lubrication I have had to nothing to it, so I owe it a refresh of the bushes and bearings.

[RodT]

Found some posts from 2009 (Dazz?) which are w a good start. Of course the lathe is close to a wall which means swinging it out... and the mill is in the way

[LesT]

I found it relatively easy to move my Viceroy (On a concrete floor anyway), I was able to lift the tailstock end up and put a piece of steel tube about 1.5" OD under the base. I was then able to drag it to a balance point and using other bits of the same tube manoeuvre it around. Great care is needed though.
Regarding the headstock bearings, is there any noise ?, how much play is there ?, how easy is it to turn by hand etc.
I wouldn't launch into a bearing change unless you were certain it was necessary.
(But don't let me put you off !, can you post some pictures please if you go ahead ?)

Les.T.

[Pete.]

I would get a grease gun, fill it with oil and pump that beggar through to wash out all the old grease and any debris, initially with it idle then with it turning slowly. After that I'd apply fresh grease. Changing headstock bearings is no trivial exercise and not cheap either. Once you are done you might even find you have worse runout than when you started.

[dazz]

Hi

On my lathe, I just opened up the bearings, inspected then cleaned them. The previous owner had changed them so I didn't need to.
The bearings are relatively cheap and easily found.


If you do change the bearings, properly seating the bearings back into the headstock is very important. Make sure the bore/shoulder are spotlessly clean.

The inner and outer shells are separate parts purchased individually.
There are two variants of the inner shell. One is longer than the other.
The correct numbers will be etched on the original bearing shells.

[RodT]

Thanks. There's no play, they've been greased regularly but there is a lot of noise, even with the tumbler out - Hard to tell if it's the bearings or the internal gearing. Nothing runs really hot either just that the noise upsets me.

I did run it slowly and pump grease through slowly until it looked consistent (though the multi-load mix in my grease gun did confuse for a while).

From reading this now, I think that I'll leave it for a while....

[Pete.]

It'll be the internal gearing. Run it backwards, you should find the noise is different.

The drawings were changed at some point to allow more clearance, then on later lathes they were changed from 10 to 12DP, presumably because the finer pitch was less noisy.

[LesT]

Two little points for your consideration....

1) if you select between B/G in and out, so there is no drive, you will be able to check the bearings for tightness etc.

B) my Viceroy is much quieter when it has had a little oil added to the Gearbox lubricators on top.

Les.T.

[dazz]

Hi
I used aerosol chain lube on the headstock gears.
It resists throw off.