Hitchcocks Forum

I am in the throes of overhauling the gearbox, in particular dealing with loose bearings and worn bronze bushes.
The r/h. mainshaft bearing has been turning in its housing and also spinning on the mainshaft; this should be curable with replacement of bearing/maiinshaft/oil flingers/l.h.t. nut, etc.
The inner race of the sleeve gear bearing has also been turning, owing to the the g/box sprocket nut coming loose - but the outer race is still firm in the main g/box casing. This may be due to the fact that the casing appears to have been swaged around the bearing and has been staked at four points. I had an engineer friend look at this for me, and he is of the opinion that it has been done so neatly and regularly that it is a professional job, and very likely to have been done by the Redditch factory.
My question is :- if I attempt to renew this bearing, is this likely to cause problems. The last thing I need at this stage is a broken or damaged gearbox casing. I find no mention of this in any of several w/shop manuals at my disposal.
Thoughts/knowledge/experience of this, anyone ?

If you are worried about re-swaging a replacement bearing in the casing, I'd not bother doing so, but instead use a bearing fit fluid.

Something such as Loctite 641 would allow the bearing to be replaced again in future, if needed.

But then, provided the gearbox is properly lubricated, it might never be needed in our lifetimes!

Thanks, Weaters - No, I would not be attempting to re-swage or re-stake the bearing, if replaced. I'd already decided I'd go the Loctite Bearing Fit route, as you have suggested. My concern is in removing the old bearing : obviously heating the case is required, but it will still take some extra force to get the bearing past the swaging. The bronze bushes in this box are severely worn (the l/h. bush in the main casing is actually visibly oval !), but conversely the ball journal bearings appear to be almost unworn although still needing replacement. ( It would be nice to fit sealed bearings to reduce the amount of oil leakage, too - I find owning a bike that leaves an oil puddle everywhere it's parked a bit embarassing)

No oil in Albion box they are not sealed very well
Use a liquid grease
I am using a mix of holts blue grease and Lucas oil stabilizer (spelin)
Changes fine and neutral not to bad to find

Removing old bearings if swaging is as I think punched you could drill out just the punch marks to relieve the extra hold
Hope this helps Dai
Edit
Just looked up swaging! Ahhh rolled over to hold it in place hmmm will have to think about that one

Thought about it


Call for Paul (Bullet whisperer )

Thanks, Daiwiskers -
Agree, Albion boxes not sealed very well, but Redditch actually recommended engine oil for lubrication. (Grease or grease/oil mixture came later, with Indian-made Bullets.)
As stated in o.p., bearing is both swaged and staked in position, with no realistic possibility of removing either by drilling...
Redditch obviously didn't intend it to come loose in the casing !

Have Redditch motor in asbo 30 not sure if gearbox is Redditch or Indian but the mix works for me so could be worth trying
In the Harley I use a synthetic 85/140 that seems to work very well it has smoothed out the clunky change and some vibration
Paul (b.w.) does a oil seal conversion that allows the use of 20/50 in the gearbox if it leaks too badly
However Paul has used 20/50 in some without problems

Good luck with it Dai

Not easy to photograph, but swaging is the ring you see around the bearing, and staking is at 1. 4, 7 and 10 o'clock in this view. What is doesn't show is the amount of wear to the inner race caused by spinning ( and the reason for wanting to replace)

That's a very neat job
Did your engineer friend have any idea's?
I don't think I would attempt that one I would look for someone else to do the job for me

Sorry I can't be of more help Dai

If it were up to me I'd be trying to pare the swaged portion of the edge of the bearing housing away with a half-round engineer's scraper, assuming you can find a half-round engineer to lend you one...

e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363551066609 ... Sw1ephFqNY

I haven't checked to see if our hosts list them in their tools section.

A.