Shopsmith Forums

when turning on ss there is a clicking sound even in low speed. It it possibly hitting the speed dial arm??

Does the clicking get faster when the speed is increased?
Is it a very loud click or or does it sound like two small pieces hitting?
One click or repeated clicks?
If it is only one click on start up or shut down You may be hearing the centrifugal switch making contact.
Repeated light clicks make me suspicious of the small bearing in the control sheave.
Anything else make me suspicious of one or more of the bearings
Look in through the inspection on the rear of the headstock, you may see something obvious.
Bill V

Inherited Mark V 500 from my father. Sorry if I use the wrong terminology or verbiage. I recently replaced both belts and the speed control assembly (quadrant/pork chop and all). When I was doing those replacement, I pulled things apart and blew out sawdust and gunk. Put everything back together, running great, speed changes nice and easy, everything seems to be going well. Just recently I started to notice like a clicking/ticking noise during operation and especially as I get to low speeds and turn it off. I took off the drive belt and rotated the motor shaft - no clicking. I rotated the quill and no clicking from the quill or from the idler shaft or sheave. Started to move things around and it appears that the inner idler sheave (the one with the spring that attaches to the quadrant/pork chop) has a slight amount of play on the idler shaft. The slot in the center of the sheave that mates with the bar/extension/whatever on the side of the shaft - so that the sheave will turn with the shaft - has a slight amount of play back and forth. I am not sure if those are supposed to be super snug cause if they were, I don't know that the sheave would move in and out freely. When the drive belt is not attached, I don't notice the clicking when I turn the shaft with my hand. But once I attach the drive belt, the clicking is there, intermittent. Does something need to be tightened? Would adjusting the eccentric bearing to further tighten the poly v belt help that? The sound was not there for the first while (week or so) after putting things together. But after I was cutting for a few hours off an on, I hear the click. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The control sheave has some wear in that groove. As long as it is 'ticking' I would simply tolerate it. Clanking is another thing that indicates replacement is needed.

Now if that tick bothers thee, then go ahead and replace the control sheave and the key.

So as long as it is just a ticking/clicking, we are good to keep going? That’s good to know. Based on what I found, I didn’t really think it would be something serious. But I will check it some more. Thanks for the input.

The movable sheaves have a tendency to bump against each other when there is slight wear of either groove. Worst case they get so far out of line that they will jump a "bump/cavity". Do not ask how I know that!