Help with changing bearings

[Raymond Sprouse]

I have a grizzly G5979 wood lathe. Well, I did a lot of modifications to it, so it really isn't a grizzly anymore. But the inner workings of the headstock are the same.

I have had this lathe for 8-9 years and plan to replace the spindle, bearings, and pulley. My question is, how to I get the bearings and spindle out of this thing? Is it pressed in?

Also, since I am at it, I want to replace the reeves drive pulley with a fixed, standard pulley. I removed the motor and added a 2 horse 220v and VFD a while back and don't need the reeves for speed control anymore. And it makes a lot of noise. The spindle is a 1x8, but I am concerned that a 1" id pulley might not fit. This lathe has a "1 inch" tool rest post that is actually metric and so a 1" tool rest won't fit in the banjo. Any thoughts on where I might find a 3-4" pulley that might work??

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Ray

[Thom Sturgill]

If you are replacing spindle, bearing and pulley then you should have options on sizes as long as they all match. Are you having a spindle machined? Or buying a replacement from Griz?

If being made for you check with the machine shop. Graingers is a good supply house for most parts and carry both pulleys and bearings. Depending on shaft size and bearing availability you may have to have the bearing openings machined too.

[Andrew Frandsen]

I just had the spindle apart on my General 260 and even with a schematic drawing I don't think I would have figured it out. A friend of mine dropped by and provided the solution. We had to separate the pulley and spacer to remove the woodruff key. This involved tapping the spindle to move the inboard bearing. Once that was done everything came apart fairly easily. I have no idea if your Grizzly would be like this but you never know.

Good luck, Andrew

[Raymond Sprouse]

Thanks for the replies.

I was going to buy the replacement parts from grizzly. I have a friend with a small machine shop in his garage that could get the parts to fit if it is off. I'll tear it apart and check the spindle diameter. I'll take a look at Graingers too.

I read a post somewhere about tapping on the spindle to get the inboard bearing out. I am not sure if this one will be the same cause it has 3 bearings, but I'll give that a try.

Thanks again guys.

[Kevin Lucas]

I just replaced pulleys on a Reese drive (after I broke em tried to take them off the hard way tap and pry wasn't pretty). I found that once you get the C clips off the spindle and the big tension spring that moving the selector lever should help you push them back enough to get it off. You may have to remove the lever turn it til its set to high speed and move it back. This got it to slide over the key way. For the motor pulley I used a wheel puller. The bearing in the selector part is pressed in and there is a C clip holding the fixed side of the pulley. I used an old socket that was a nice fit to tap the pulley out. I never got to look at the front bearing but I would bet there is another c clip.

Putting the old pulleys back to test fit they would not got more than a little bit. The same with the new set so a little fine sand paper and lubrication and they went on and work like a dream now. So I would say the spindle has c clamps near the pulleys and both bearings. With those off the spindle should slide out. A good bet the bearings are pressed in to the front and the selector lever arm. How to get those out I'm not sure. I hope this helps at least in taking it all apart.