Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 15:13:20 :
In Reply to: Re: component rebuilding posted by john Dunn on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 15:01:57 :
Yes, you hit on the biggest problem with gear boxes on old rigs. If they've sat a long time, there is often rust on the bearings and races. It's fine when you first start using a truck that "ran when parked", but after a while even the tiniest rust pits get pounded into craters and eventually balls or rollers actually shatter. Water damage isn't so much from rain getting in; it's from condensation on the upper parts of the gearbox after all the oil has drained down to the bottom. This is why it's important to at least start every rig and move it back and forth a little ways at least once a year just to splash oil all over the gearboxes. And don't try to get by by reusing the old seals. I did that once and learned my lesson.
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