Shopsmith Forums

The Gilmer Drive Sleeve Assembly Marc shows above is the clutched version. I have bought from this seller too and have been happy with what I received matching the description. I would recommend contacting the seller to ask about the condition of the bearings and if the clutch is working correctly. This would be cheaper than converting to a Poly V Drive needing the Drive Sleeve Assembly, replacing the Sheave with the Poly V pulley on the Idler Shaft Assembly and the Quill Assembly. That being said there are those 3 assemblies up for auction ending on the 19th all from the same seller (wa3zgt). They are listed as coming from a Mark V 520 being upgraded meaning they should be no older than 1999. The shipping listed is high for them more than doubling the total cost and I would contact the seller about that before bidding. Ask about combined shipping if buying all three. USPS Flat rate box shipping should be much less costly than any of the shipping listed for the individual items and all three items could be sent together.

As for the Gilmer clutch working correctly or not, as Russ mentioned, MickeyD has a great discussion on “Disassembly, cleaning, and torque testing”, in which he describes setting the correct torque for proper operation of the gilmer clutch. It is in his post pinned at the top of this forum topic, titled “Everything Mark 5 / V - Technical info, documentation, links”. It has an index where you will find the discussion I noted above. Even if the clutch is not working 100% correctly, it looks to me like it can be easily fixed. He includes both good explanation and photos.

You can find that post here:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5092

Majones1 wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 5:53 pm I saw this gilmer drive shaft on e-bay earlier this morning, and I believe it has the clutch. It’s much cheaper than converting to the poly-v drive which, if I remember correctly, is close to $400 if you bought all new parts. I have bought parts from this seller before.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shopsmith-Mark ... 632-2357-0

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1E28248B-E80F-4D94-A79B-2371FFD835A3.jpeg

I actually contacted this seller and he said and I quote, "There is no clutch in any shopsmith machines. The sheeves control the speed. What do you want to achieve in your upgrade? I may have the parts to achieve that."

So I am assuming he is wrong with his facts. I will happily buy this one, but can anyone confirm it has a clutch? I will ask him about the bearings as well.
Amazing how great this shop smith community is!

chapmanruss wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 11:58 am The Gilmer Drive Sleeve Assembly Marc shows above is the clutched version. I have bought from this seller too and have been happy with what I received matching the description. I would recommend contacting the seller to ask about the condition of the bearings and if the clutch is working correctly. This would be cheaper than converting to a Poly V Drive needing the Drive Sleeve Assembly, replacing the Sheave with the Poly V pulley on the Idler Shaft Assembly and the Quill Assembly. That being said there are those 3 assemblies up for auction ending on the 19th all from the same seller (wa3zgt). They are listed as coming from a Mark V 520 being upgraded meaning they should be no older than 1999. The shipping listed is high for them more than doubling the total cost and I would contact the seller about that before bidding. Ask about combined shipping if buying all three. USPS Flat rate box shipping should be much less costly than any of the shipping listed for the individual items and all three items could be sent together.

Russ has much, much more experience than I do with ShopSmith, and has written and posted here many of the studies on the different ShopSmith models, SPTs, and all the changes made over the years, so if he says it is a clutch version of the gilmer drive shaft, like he did in the first sentence, you can trust that.

I am new to ShopSmiths myself, having only begun working with them since April or May of this year. I have two old models, and many of the SPTs, all of which I have torn down to do some repair and a little refurbishing, and I’ve read much of the available documentation, as well as studied many of the related message threads here in this forum, so I have learned a few things. But I pretty much always defer to the real experts here. I’ve been helped a lot by them, and I only hope to attempt to return the favor in some way.

Many, although not all, of these parts sellers are really just that. There have been a lot of little changes over the years, so if they haven’t dug into them like some of the long timers here, they sometimes think they know something they don’t. If you want to prove it to yourself that the clutch is real, look at MickyD’s post that I suggested in a previous post. He has photos of it, in barious states of disassembly. You can see for yourself.

Get the part, and enjoy the journey of these amazing old machines.

If you bought the Gilmer Drive Sleeve Assembly Marc provided the link to it is a clutched version if the picture is of the actual Drive Sleeve Assembly for sale and the seller is mistaken. I am surprised britgent1 said none of the Drive Sleeves assemblies are clutched since he sells quite a bit of Shopsmith items. Maybe this is the first time he has had a clutched Gilmer Drive Sleeve Assembly and didn't realize it has the clutch. Some sellers are simply trying to turn a profit selling on ebay and do not necessarily know much about the items they are selling. All Gilmer Drive Sleeve Assemblies made after mid 1954 (the first year of production) have the clutched Gilmer Drive Sleeve Assembly and as I said previously was one of the first changes made to the Mark 5. Visually the easy way to tell the difference is the location of the set screw. Non-clutched has the set screw in the gear teeth while the clutched has the set screw on a collar like the one shown in my previous post.