Westfield reverse box rebuild
Discussion
I'm in the process of fixing the reverse box from my bike engined Westfield, after I found the oil that is normally ejected from the breather had turned a nasty shade of metallic grey.
Inside it looks a bit like this (not my pic):
The culprit seems to be the smaller reverse shaft bearings which sit at the top of the box, well away from the oil, which have gone very crunchy.
I don't have any engineering knowledge, so is there any reason why I shouldn't replace these bearings with rubber sealed ones? Would that solve the lack of oil?
In my box the larger main shaft bearings have already been replaced with rubber sealed ones, I guess last time the box was serviced by the previous owner. These seem okay, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to swap these too while everything is in pieces.
Inside it looks a bit like this (not my pic):
The culprit seems to be the smaller reverse shaft bearings which sit at the top of the box, well away from the oil, which have gone very crunchy.
I don't have any engineering knowledge, so is there any reason why I shouldn't replace these bearings with rubber sealed ones? Would that solve the lack of oil?
In my box the larger main shaft bearings have already been replaced with rubber sealed ones, I guess last time the box was serviced by the previous owner. These seem okay, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to swap these too while everything is in pieces.
Thanks, I've done some quick numbers, I think the max prop speed at 120mph would be about 6300rpm.
The bearings "Limiting Speed" is 28000 for the open ones, and 13000 for the rubber sealed ones.
The box is filled about a quarter full with oil. This is the gear train, so you'd expect the chain and gears to throw plenty of oil around the top bearings.
The other concern is whether sealed bearings might add noticeably to the transmission losses caused by the box?
The bearings "Limiting Speed" is 28000 for the open ones, and 13000 for the rubber sealed ones.
The box is filled about a quarter full with oil. This is the gear train, so you'd expect the chain and gears to throw plenty of oil around the top bearings.
The other concern is whether sealed bearings might add noticeably to the transmission losses caused by the box?
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