Help with Clausing 6535 Gear Box Leak

[dpage]

Just bought a 15 in. Clausing-Colchester 6535 lathe. The quick change gear box has a leak. Can anyone provide information on what is the likely culprit and what is involved in reparing the leak?

dpage

[TDHofstetter]

That one sounds like a good hard call for some investigative work, beginning with a really thorough cleanup so you can get the whole thing dry enough to spot where the oil's coming from. After you track down the source, the fix should be fairly self-explanatory.

I'm not trying to be vague here, it's just that there are a number of possible leakage sites - seals, gaskets - in any machine that's supposed to hold oil. The simple presence of an oil leak doesn't necessarily point to any particular leak site... so ya gotta' do a little legwork.

When you clean it up, don't hesitate to pull off anything that otherwise obstructs your view of any moist surface. You may find a seal behind a gear or pulley that rides on a different shaft, for example - I've run into that on a brand-new import lathe that leaked oil.

Find the highest moist spot and look around there. Tends to be the case that oil migrates downward a lot faster than it migrates upward. The shafts in your gearbox won't usually turn as fast as the lathe spindle, so oil's not likely to be slung upward very far.

Sure hope some of this helps.

-- Tim --

[sandman2234]

Are you sure nobody has been parking their Harley near it?
David from Jax