Shopsmith Forums

Does anyone have step by step instructions, or a tutorial video on how to change the Gilmer belt on an old greenie?

I think these are included if you buy the belt from the mothership: https://shopsmith.com/ownersite/product ... cement.pdf

- David

Unfortunately, getting to the upper belt means disassembling most of the headstock. Jacob Anderson has a video on installing the upper belt (poly-v or gilmer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl1W2zhCpeY; but as he says right at the beginning, you have to watch a number of his previous videos in order to tear down the headstock to the point where you can install the new belt. Search Jacob Anderson Youtube videos for his "Shopsmith Mark V Headstock Teardown", pt 1-4.

If you're replacing the gilmer belt, you might as well replace the motor belt, too, since you'll already have done most of the work for that, as well. You might as well inspect the bearings and speed control while you're at it, too. He mentions that in the videos.

There's plenty of help here in the forum if you have questions during the process.

There are two things you may want to consider with the Gilmer Drive System. There were two different Gilmer Drive Sleeve Assemblies made and depending on when your Mark 5 was made it will have either the early non-clutched or later clutched Drive Sleeve Assembly. This change occurred rather early in the Mark 5 production. The clutch was added to help prevent breaking belts so easily and was one the first changes made to the Mark 5. If your Mark 5 has the non-clutched Drive Sleeve Assembly, you may want to consider changing it. If your Mark 5 has the clutched Drive Sleeve Assembly, you should check to make sure it is working correctly. If it doesn't slip properly, it will not be any better than having a non-clutched one and if it slips too much it will not drive the spindle.

A consideration at this point would be to upgrade to the Poly V Drive system.

Thanks, DLB, I'm new to woodworking so the instructions you sent will come in handy.

chapmanruss wrote: ↑Sun Feb 20, 2022 2:18 pm A consideration at this point would be to upgrade to the Poly V Drive system.

Years ago that was about $500/600 to do.

Bob is correct that it can be a bit costly to buy new upgrade parts. Used parts can be found being sold by Mark V owners who did the do-it-yourself upgrade to the Power Pro motor at a more reasonable price. I recently saw a Quill Assembly, Drive Sleeve Assembly and an Idler Shaft Assembly in different sales, all reasonably priced that I would have purchased if I had a need for any of them.