Hi Deek,
Sorry to hear you found some problems - though I think my QC gearbox full of old coolant probably beats it, rusted-out 60-year-old bearings, not made for 40 years... Yes Sir, said Timken, we can make you our minimum order of 500 at £525 each....
To get to the rack:
It's not a quick job, but not a really difficult job either!
Best way to start (as I've found when doing it a few times, similar machines):
disconnect from power!
remove the tailstock (may first need to unbolt the stop at the end of the bed, between the ways);
move carriage all the way to the headstock end ;
remove three plastic bungs covering the ends of the 3 shafts and remove any nuts / fixings / thrust bearings on the outboard end;
remove the socket screws from the shaft bracket, and the taper pins if fitted (not essential, but you'll need to pull the bracket out further from the bed otherwise);
*firmly and confidently* lever bracket out from side of lathe bed (easiest to put a pry-bar behind one of the shafts with a wood/copper pad or two to prevent damage) and slide off shafts - you may have a ball and spring that drops out of the fwd/rev shaft's detent latch and a thrust bearing or two on the ends of the leadscrew and feed shaft;
Slide the carriage to about half-way along the ways;
remove taper pins (AKA shear-pins) from the feed shaft and leadscrew at the gearbox end;
back off the grubscrew/s holding the switch cam on the shaft;
*engage half-nuts*;
slide carriage towards tailstock - this should pull the feed shaft and leadscrew out of the collars at the gearbox end;
The carriage and apron should now be free to slide off the end of the bed!
When you slide 'em off, beware of gibstrips etc. that are going to fall out - note where from (usually rear shear) and which way around - you'll need to slacken the gib adjusters to get 'em back into place before sliding everything back together when you're done!
Once the carriage is off, you can carefully remove the three shafts, being aware of keys that will drop out once you do (e.g. the feed worm holds the key for the feed shaft - the slot in the worm is blind-ended so it needs to be in place before fitting the shaft back in etc.).
You may not need to take the whole carriage off, just the apron and if so just unbolt it once you've freed the shafts at both ends (usually half a dozen capscrews from the top surface of the saddle wings, beware of the slide lock that drops inside if it's unscrewed too far!) - Bear in mind that the crossfeed gear (for power feeds) sticks up above the apron to engage a gear on the crossfeed shaft in the cross-slide!
Once the rack's off, you'll probably find it's a standard pitch - either DP or Module, depending on whether it's Imperial or metric, should be findable as a stock item (not specific to your lathe) even if you have to drill for mountings?
Hope that helps, Your Machine May Vary!
Dave H. (the other one)
