Quill is frozen on old Mark V

[ugly_guitar_guy]

Hey guys,

I dove into my Mark V headstock a little more today. Pulled the speed control out and filed the teeth of the porkchop with a triangle file to get them back to usable again, and got the drive shaft out and lubed up again cause the sheaves were stuck.

Now, when I got to my quill I ran into 2 problems. One, is that I don't have a Quill Feed Hub, so I can't use a handle to turn the quill. All I can do it grab where the handle would go with a pipe wrench and try to turn it. Problem two, it doesn't turn. Well actually, after about an hour of sitting with some oil on moving sections it moved about a half inch out, but now it wont go forward or backwards. I watched sawdust session #24 about taking it out and looked at the manuals and it's not much help cause I don't know how to address this thing being stuck. Anyone have a clue how I can attack this while I try to find that quill feed hub?

Here's what I'm looking at:

[JPG]

If you are having that much trouble, I would first remove the quill feed. A set screw(putty filled) on top of the return spring housing and the whole thing(housing,shaft,pinion,sleeve.. ) should slide out from that side. That domed shaped washer will fall off, so be sure to watch for that so it doesn't get lost.

With the pinion gear out of the way, the quill can be also rotated while attempting to slide it out.

The ears that the quill bore runs through appear crooked, but that may be the camera angle(or just this A castings personality).

Be especially careful using a pipe wrench(I do not recommend using on anything but pipes which I do not mind scarring permanently).

[fiatben]

My first thought was a gummed up quill because my last SS would only move a little bit, but it was completely junked up. Then I saw the picture, which totally blew that theory.

Man, I can't imagine taking a pipe wrench to my machine. I would definitely take it completely apart first and see if that reveals the problem. Would a burr on the quill cause this?

[dusty]

My first thought was a gummed up quill because my last SS would only move a little bit, but it was completely junked up. Then I saw the picture, which totally blew that theory.

Man, I can't imagine taking a pipe wrench to my machine. I would definitely take it completely apart first and see if that reveals the problem. Would a burr on the quill cause this?

Yes it certainly could. Even a small amount of aluminum shaving that gets lodged in the wrong location can do that.

I refrain from cutting aluminum for that reason. I had a quill locked tighter than tight and when I finally got it all apart I discovered what appeared to be aluminum shaving.

If I do cut aluminum, I clean up afterwards - before doing anything else.

The teeth on your quill look to be gummed up with saw dust so I am not surprised that the quill is hard to move. Patience. No big hammers or pipe wrenches required. Finesse only.

[oddie]

With my recent problem on getting my 500 back into operation, I found the quill to be stuck. I worked it back and forth with lots of elbow grease (I got it from the GMC ads) and after lots of repetitions it finally came free. (This was after removing the set screw per JPG.) I the front portion of the quill, the one with the rack, to be smooth and polished but the splines on the back of the quill were really gummed up. And I found that the nylon sleeve on the drive shaft the splines slide into and the portion of the quill this nylon sleeve slides into were also gummy.

After using mineral spirits, brushes, toothpicks and rags I got it cleaned up. I lubed it with powered graphite ( per JPG) and it works fine.

I found another thread about 6 months old (can't find it now and I don't know how to copy links so even if I found it I couldn't point you to it) that discusses this sticky quill issue. Do a search for it.

[trainguytom]

After looking at the pics, I almost have to agree that the ears look as if they are crooked & pressing to the quill. (Hard to imagine how that could happen, though)
I know you probably don't want to scar things up, but instead of a pipe wrench, how about locking a pair of vise-grips to each end of the quill feed shaft & see if that will give you the leverage to gently move it back & forth , then squirt some lube in & keep "rocking" it to get movement a little at a time.

[JPG]

I already said it, but do remove the quill feed shaft etc.

You may be fighting both a stuck quill and a stuck quill feed shaft.

P.S. I think the crooked ears are the casting, and were crooked before the quill bore.

[robinson46176]

A good way to grip a shaft without burring it is with Vice-Grips with the jaws padded either with strips of heavy sheet aluminum or even hard wooden pads. It gives you a good way to wiggle things back and forth a bit. That is "wiggle" not force.
Sawdust impacted into those quill rack teeth will really surprise you at how much resistance to movement it can cause.


.

[JPG]

A good way to grip a shaft without burring it is with Vice-Grips with the jaws padded either with strips of heavy sheet aluminum or even hard wooden pads. It gives you a good way to wiggle things back and forth a bit. That is "wiggle" not force.
Sawdust impacted into those quill rack teeth will really surprise you at how much resistance to movement it can cause.


.

And with the pinion gear taken out, it becomes non-relevant!;)

[ugly_guitar_guy]

Hey guys, thanks for all the help!

I dug the screw out and pulled the pinion shaft out, then after much prying, cursing, and busted knuckes, I got the quill separated from the auxiliary spindle. Turns out the culprit was some kind of dried, gummy, yellowish crud that had basically stuck the spindle together and kept the two parts from moving independently (looked like old grease to me). More cursing and lubing got the two pieces unstuck and I had to scrape and sand it all off before I could get the pieces back together. Now they're all lubed up and moving nicely, and the quill shaft moves smoothly with a turn of the pinion shaft by hand.

Now I believe i have to find how to reset the spring tension of the spindle. Back to the search bar for me...