Reeves Drive vibration, noise

[Alex Ku]

My Jet 1236 lathe makes some noise and vibration at some speeds. I've changed regular v-belt to a "Vibration Free" Link Belts. Still some noise.

Is it common for Reeves Drive to vibrate and be noisy at certain speeds?

 

[Bill Boehme]

Yes, it is common for them to be noisy -- and the noise will only get worse. The source of the problem is wear that is loosening the clearance between the sliding half of the motor pulley and motor shaft. Next, the keyway slot will start to widen because of the peening action of the vibration and finally because the pulleys are made of die-cast zinc (rather than cast iron as they ought to be), they will begin to warp due to the vibration and torque loading. The failure mode is an avalanche type failure in that once it begins, it continues to accelerate until something breaks.

And I would not use a link belt because the speed is a function of belt length in addition to the spindle pulley diameter. The link belts will stretch under load in this particular type of application because the belt tension varies over a much wider range than it would be in a normal fixed pulley belt drive. Speed regulation may not seem like a big deal in a woodturning lathe, but it can lead to rotational vibration that can cause problems especially in thin turnings.

I have made some modifications that slow down the wear process and dampen the vibration a bit, but in the long run it is a bit like putting lipstick on a pig. Lathes that use a Reeves drive were probably originally intended for spindle turning and, even then, probably only for occasional use and not for the more serious woodturner who does bowls and other large diamete things.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Lathes that use a Reeves drive were probably originally intended for spindle turning and, even then, probably only for occasional use and not for the more serious woodturner who does bowls and other large diamete things.

This certainly applies to the tinny imitation Reeves drives like the 1236, NOT to those that have run for thousands of hours in woodshops everywhere. A reeves drive in "old iron" i as reliable as the day is long. The amount of abuse meted out by students which they tolerate proves it.

 

[Joe Greiner]

Regarding wear, Don Garlits (drag racing star of eons ago) used to say, "Oil is the cheapest thing we've got. Use plenty of it." An occasional spray of WD-40, or similar, can help longevity. Try it on both pulley shafts, as well as the rack guide hole on the front of the headstock. It might also be worthwhile to add hinges to the headstock enclosure, to encourage access.

 

[Ron Sardo]

I would use graphite instead of oil on a wood lathe.
Wood dust and oil make a very abrasive mixture.

This certainly applies to the tinny imitation Reeves drives like the 1236, NOT to those that have run for thousands of hours in woodshops everywhere. A reeves drive in "old iron" i as reliable as the day is long. The amount of abuse meted out by students which they tolerate proves it.

Absolutely Correct.

 

[john lucas]

I had a Delta with a Reeves drive and had constant vibration problems that came from the pulleys. I broke 2 over the years I had it. Don't use the link belt, they don't work as well as a solid belt on these drives.
I also agree with MM. The old iron reeves drives like they used on the Powermatics were tough as nails. I've seen some really old apparently abused lathes that still worked fine and were easy to refurbish.
Your best bet is to keep the shafts clean and well lubricated. A good quality grease works best for me but it does attract sawdust and needs to be cleaned regularly. My Shopsmith also had a reeves drive and a regular clean and lube kept it running for years.

 

[Rusty Smith]

Regarding wear, Don Garlits (drag racing star of eons ago) used to say, "Oil is the cheapest thing we've got. Use plenty of it." An occasional spray of WD-40, or similar, can help longevity. Try it on both pulley shafts, as well as the rack guide hole on the front of the headstock. It might also be worthwhile to add hinges to the headstock enclosure, to encourage access.

WD40 is not a lubricant though many use it for that. The WD stands for water displacement (or displacing) and the 40 is in reference to the 40th attempt by the chemist who developed it.

For what it's worth (not much, I know) I spent many years in the same environ as Big Daddy. He on the Pro side of things me on the sportsman side. Last time I remember talking to him was in San Antonio in about 1984 though I'm sure he would not remember.

 

[Vaughn]

WD40 is not a lubricant though many use it for that...

Although I've heard the "not a lubricant" mantra before, I believe the company that makes it would disagree. From their site (emphasis mine):

Known as "the can with thousands of uses," WD-40 protects metal from rust and corrosion, penetrates stuck parts, displaces moisture, and lubricates just about anything.

That said, I'll second the recommendation for graphite on the shafts of a Reeves drive, though. I had better success with that than WD-40 on my old Sears lathe.

 

[Bill Boehme]

This certainly applies to the tinny imitation Reeves drives like the 1236, NOT to those that have run for thousands of hours in woodshops everywhere. A reeves drive in "old iron" i as reliable as the day is long. The amount of abuse meted out by students which they tolerate proves it.

..... and, that is why I had the note in parentheses "(rather than cast iron as they ought to be)".

The die cast zinc used on the Delta 1440, Jet 1236, and some other off-brand lathes from Grizzly, Harbor Freight, et al is simply too soft.

I think that I may have beat John Lucas in the number of times that I have replaced the pulleys (all on Delta's nickel). I have a large box full of worn out drive components. Their customer service has always been very nice and helpful and had the parts out to me pronto and said that anytime within the two year warranty, they would cheerfully refund my money -- no questions asked -- if I decided that I did not want it (I still have it, but the Reeves drive is in the process of going away). They even sent me a full set of everything that goes in and on the headstock including spindle, bearings, paint, and decals.

When I finally reached the point that I could field strip a Delta 1440 headstock as fast as I could field strip an M16 forty years ago, I decided it was time to take an alternate course of action on the drive system.

 

[Ron Sardo]

I had a 1236 for better than 5 years. Because of regular cleaning and maintenance the drive was still in excellent shape when I sold it.

I took the drive apart to make sure, if it wasn't I was planning on replacing it. I also made the point in showing the buyer how to maintain the drive. Like Bill, it got so that I could tear down the drive in my sleep.

WD-40 MSDS

 

[Bill Boehme]

I use WD-40 for a lot of things, but not for high-load rotating machinery because it doesn't have adequate film strength.

Like John Lucas, I believe that fairly heavy grease is needed for high load areas between the sliding pulley halves and spindle and motor arbors. I found a synthetic grease that worked well. It is temperature stable and did not seem to have as much of a problem with dust sticking to it as hydrocarbon oil based greases.

In addition to that, I fabricated a dust boot to fit over the greased area between the motor arbor and pulley hub. I replaced the keystock on the motor arbor and spindle with oversized stock to tighten up the loose fit that contributed to the rattle and wear. Finally, I machined a new yoke assembly (which moves the sliding half of the spindle pulley) when I found that the design had some built-in slop and also did not move parallel to the spindle. By the time that I did all of this, it was a much better lathe, but it did not address the major weakness -- the pulleys needed to be cast iron because die cast zinc is not up to the task. As a result, the Reeves components continued to fail, but just slower than before.

I am fairly certain that the Jet 1236 was built much better than the Delta, but it still has the basic weakness.

 

[Curt Fuller]

I turn daily on a 1954 Oliver 156, all still original, including the reeves drive belt. It has grease zerks to lubricate the sliding pulleys for the reeves drive. About once a year or so it will get sticky. I take it apart, clean it, re-grease everything, and I'm back in business. I think I'd recommend grease for the sliding pulleys just because it will stay where you put it better than something like WD40 or graphite. The vibration, at least on my Oliver, is caused when the pully shafts get sticky and the spring driven pulley doesn't follow the speed handle adjusted pulley, making the belt get too loose.

 

[Charles Henderson]

I started out on a delta 46-700, 12" lathe. It also had the reeves drive, and I've had the usual problems.

I have a question that I've wondered about. If the biggest problem is the pulleys, then would having new ones machined from something else resolve the problem? Would it be too cost prohibitive?

It would be nice if I could make a good lathe out of it again.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I started out on a delta 46-700, 12" lathe. It also had the reeves drive, and I've had the usual problems.

I have a question that I've wondered about. If the biggest problem is the pulleys, then would having new ones machined from something else resolve the problem? Would it be too cost prohibitive?

It would be nice if I could make a good lathe out of it again.

I have done extensive searching for off the shelf replacements made of cast iron. The ones that I have found would require considerable modification of the drive system to make them adapt and then the cost is rather high.

The cost of custom machining something would be astronomical. First it would require a lot of expense in engineering design, creation of drawings, fabrication process, and finally building the parts -- even doing it "on the cheap" would not be cheap.

While the pulleys are the "biggies", we can't overlook the other problem areas that are inherent in these lathes. The #2 problem in the Delta (and probably others as well) is the loosey-goosey yoke mechanism on the headstock that moves the sliding half of the spindle pulley. The guide holes are loose and not parallel (that's why they are loose, no doubt) and the connections between the guide rod and follower to the yoke are not rigid nor perpendicular. The resulting misalignment applies "wiggle" forces on the pulley and eventually it will break at the hub. I rebuilt that part of my lathe, but it was more work than the lathe deserved.

 

[Dave W]

My Jet 1236 lathe makes noise and vibration at some speeds. I've changed regular v-belt to a "Vibration Free" Link Belts. It did not help at all.

Is it common for Reeves Drive to vibrate and be noisy at certain speeds?

Two ?'s, How old is your lathe and have you replaced the spindle pulley(s)?

The reason I ask is do to the problems I am having with my 1442. My original post is here http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=6221. Since that post I did end up taking it to the Authorized Repair Center, not that I trust them. First off when I walked in with my head stock they blurt out that they have never worked on a wood lathe before. Then next problem was their shop did not have 220v in it, I had to rewire it on the spot and explain that they could just us clips to hook it up. I left, a tad worried, and 2 days later I get the results of their findings, they said the spindle shaft is bent. I had to know so I asked, how did you determine that it's bent? The reply was "with calipers, I'm getting different readings all along it's length." Ummm I think it's tapered a tad here and there so the bearing doesn't have to be driven the whole length. "No, it's bent."

Jet had agreed to help out on parts, but I have to cover the labor, so the list was made and called into Jet. I'm told he has to check on it, and the next day he informs me that this would be the last of the parts they are giving me. He then says that they are going out tomorrow. The following Friday the repair center still hadn't recieved them, so I called Jet up. They tell me they are going out today minus one piece, it's on back order. Yep you guessed it, the spindle shaft. I asked how long, their reply was 6-8 weeks, but we are not really sure. This was June 26th., I learned today they are now thinking maybe the middle of September, maybe!

So why the long post, well my friend has the same lathe, as does someone else on another forums. All 3 of us have now experienced the same problem after having replaced our spindle pulley. When you get it all back together and turn it on, it sounds like a machine gun going off inside the headstock. Most likely the noise is coming from the brand new bearing we just chewed up by turning the lathe on. I'm fully convinced the problem we are experiencing is due to impropper milling of the pulleys. Untill I get my new "straight" shaft in I won't be able to prove my case. In the mean time my buddy decided to start his wait and called Jet. Having been with me when we dropped mine off he decided to see if he could take his elsewhere. We took it to another repair center, in another city. Turns out by running his as long as he had with the same rattle noise, he really did some damage to it. Jet is replacing everything in the head stock, and the motor. He ate up a bearing in the motor as well.

I may be totally wrong here, but everything worked fine, until I put the new pulley(s) on. Either way I'm down for at least 6 months, perhaps longer if my theory is correct. I guess you can just consider this a heads up if you are need of ordering new pulleys.

In the meantime stay turned for more episodes of "As the lathe don't turn"

 

[Bill Boehme]

Dave, it sounds like we could swap lots of horror stories, but at least Delta has been very good to deal with. They even went so far as to offer additional parts that I did not think that I would need, but they said that I might as well replace anything that came in contact with a bad part. I was always very courteous to the customer service people and they also were courteous and sympathetic. Since I had to order warranty parts so many times, we were almost on a first name basis.

The Jet story about a bent spindle is highly suspect since I can't imagine using a caliper or micrometer to determine that a shaft is bent. The normal method to test for a bent shaft or spindle is with a calibrated granite table and a bright light. Besides that, different sections of the spindle are different diameters depending on whether a bearing or pulley is installed at that point. Besides that, I haven't seen a die cast Reeves pulley that was true enough to matter whether the spindle was bent.

 

[fred holsclaw]

well i got rid of my problem with my jet 1442 lathe
nova is how i fixed it

 

[Ron Sardo]

well i got rid of my problem with my jet 1442 lathe
nova is how i fixed it

LOL

Reminds me how I fixed a car once, which also happened to be a Nova.

 

[fred holsclaw]

proiblem sloved on 1442 reeves drive
new nove here today
now to start to turn

 

[fred holsclaw]

well i did it
I KILLED THE NOVA
motor locked up as i was sanding a mortor out of cherry today had unit on low speed today about 400 rpms and turned it off to check it went to turn it back on motor would not start just hum
looks like i am not going to turn for some time now only had the lathe for a week not good

 

[Bill Boehme]

well i did it
I KILLED THE NOVA
motor locked up as i was sanding a mortor out of cherry today had unit on low speed today about 400 rpms and turned it off to check it went to turn it back on motor would not start just hum
looks like i am not going to turn for some time now only had the lathe for a week not good

If the motor is humming, it is likely one of two problems:

1. With the power off, can you turn the spindle by hand? If not something mechanical is jammed such as a bearing in the lathe or motor. Remove the belt and see if the motor will run unloaded.
2. If the motor turns freely by hand, try this: With the power ON, try "hand propping" it with the belt removed. If the start capacitor is bad, it will just hum since it does not know which way to turn, but if you give it a start with your hand, it will slowly come up to speed.

 

[fred holsclaw]

talked with Tim at nova repair this morning. new motor on way .
also told him about the nuts that hold motor to head stock and he is sending them also. so far service is great lets see if this will fix it
fred
stay tuned for more of as the lathe dose not turn by fred (aka lathe killer)
:cool2:

 

[MichaelMouse]

If the motor is humming, it is likely one of two problems:

1. With the power off, can you turn the spindle by hand? If not something mechanical is jammed such as a bearing in the lathe or motor. Remove the belt and see if the motor will run unloaded.
2. If the motor turns freely by hand, try this: With the power ON, try "hand propping" it with the belt removed. If the start capacitor is bad, it will just hum since it does not know which way to turn, but if you give it a start with your hand, it will slowly come up to speed.

Isn't this a DVR? When he mentions 400 rpm, a speed not available on the 16-24, I have a feeling it might be, don't you? No capacitor, no belt. In which case, good advice applies to other motors of the induction type. Tim would no doubt have sent a capacitor if it would fix the problem.

May not have anything to do with this malfunction, Fred, but the DVR, if yours is one, has an optical speed pickup, so take extra care in collecting dust as you generate it, and blow it out of the housing periodically.

 

[fred holsclaw]

Isn't this a DVR? When he mentions 400 rpm, a speed not available on the 16-24, I have a feeling it might be, don't you? No capacitor, no belt. In which case, good advice applies to other motors of the induction type. Tim would no doubt have sent a capacitor if it would fix the problem.

May not have anything to do with this malfunction, Fred, but the DVR, if yours is one, has an optical speed pickup, so take extra care in collecting dust as you generate it, and blow it out of the housing periodically.

not yet useto the speeds on this one speed was 360 and no it is not a dvrxp just a 1624 belt brive

 

[MichaelMouse]

not yet useto the speeds on this one speed was 360 and no it is not a dvrxp just a 1624 belt brive

OK, then Bill's advice is spot on, with one further thought. Chinese switches are made of some really crummy stuff, and I rather expect that the centrifugal switch "points" may be as well. I'd let the O/I switch spark and weld and replace it with a good one first opportunity. The points on the centrifugal switch, assuming yours is not a capacitor-run, but merely a capacitor-start motor, will want periodic care from a folded piece of 400 SiC paper. When they malfunction the motor hums as the capacitor continually tries to boost the rotation while the motor is operating.

When you replace the O/I switch, remote it to a box you can use at the tail end of the lathe so you don't have to stand in or reach through the line of fire to turn on or off.

 

[Bill Boehme]

OK, then Bill's advice is spot on, with one further thought. Chinese switches are made of some really crummy stuff, and I rather expect that the centrifugal switch "points" may be as well. I'd let the O/I switch spark and weld and replace it with a good one first opportunity. The points on the centrifugal switch, assuming yours is not a capacitor-run, but merely a capacitor-start motor, will want periodic care from a folded piece of 400 SiC paper. When they malfunction the motor hums as the capacitor continually tries to boost the rotation while the motor is operating.

When you replace the O/I switch, remote it to a box you can use at the tail end of the lathe so you don't have to stand in or reach through the line of fire to turn on or off.

Good point about the centrifugal switch on import motors. It could either be the contacts burned or that one of the springs broke or that the centrifugal mechanism got stuck in the run position.

 

[Tony Caro]

I use WD-40 for a lot of things, but not for high-load rotating machinery because it doesn't have adequate film strength.

Like John Lucas, I believe that fairly heavy grease is needed for high load areas between the sliding pulley halves and spindle and motor arbors. I found a synthetic grease that worked well. It is temperature stable and did not seem to have as much of a problem with dust sticking to it as hydrocarbon oil based greases.

In addition to that, I fabricated a dust boot to fit over the greased area between the motor arbor and pulley hub. I replaced the keystock on the motor arbor and spindle with oversized stock to tighten up the loose fit that contributed to the rattle and wear. Finally, I machined a new yoke assembly (which moves the sliding half of the spindle pulley) when I found that the design had some built-in slop and also did not move parallel to the spindle. By the time that I did all of this, it was a much better lathe, but it did not address the major weakness -- the pulleys needed to be cast iron because die cast zinc is not up to the task. As a result, the Reeves components continued to fail, but just slower than before.

I am fairly certain that the Jet 1236 was built much better than the Delta, but it still has the basic weakness.

I know this is an old post but I suspect that my lathe which is a generic one with the Reeves pulley system has the same problem as detailed in the quote. The keyway has increased in size so there is some slop there. Do you have a photo of your yoke assembly for the sliding pulley? Also rather than replace the keystock on the motor arbor could you just not replace the sliding pulley, I know it's not cast iron but it would be easier than fiddling with the keyway?

 

[Bill Boehme]

I know this is an old post but I suspect that my lathe which is a generic one with the Reeves pulley system has the same problem as detailed in the quote. The keyway has increased in size so there is some slop there. Do you have a photo of your yoke assembly for the sliding pulley? Also rather than replace the keystock on the motor arbor could you just not replace the sliding pulley, I know it's not cast iron but it would be easier than fiddling with the keyway?

If there is a lot of free play then the pulley would need to be replaced, but it is also a good idea to replace the keystock. It is pretty cheap and can be bought in foot long pieces -- usually in sets of five pieces from Grainger and other industrial supply places. I bought oversized keystock which means that it is very slightly larger than nominal and can be adjusted with a diamond hone or fine file so that it fits tightly in the motor shaft keyway.The reason for oversized key stock is to get an almost snug fit to the slot in the pulley. Make sure that the key stock is polished with a metal polish to give it a smooth surface that minimizes wear. Also keep it well greased.

Every lathe seems to be slightly different. On mine, the yoke that I am talking about is the assembly that connects to the speed control lever and is attached to the moving half of the spindle pulley. If you want to see what it looked like on my Delta 46-715, you could go to the Delta site and find the illustrated parts breakdown.

BTW, when you replace a pulley, you have to replace both the fixed and the sliding parts together. The reason is that they come as a matched set.

 

[Tony Caro]

Thanks Bill for the quick response, I realise now that my profile doesn't include where I'm from which is Melbourne Australia but should be able to get keyway stock from metal suppliers around here. I didn't see a huge amount of stock but what I noticed is that the lathe seems to run fine particularly at high speeds, when you try and reduce the speed there is a rattle and a little bit of resistance around the 800 rpm mark, machine has been lubed so can only think that it's a pulley or bearing problem.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Thanks Bill for the quick response, I realise now that my profile doesn't include where I'm from which is Melbourne Australia but should be able to get keyway stock from metal suppliers around here. I didn't see a huge amount of stock but what I noticed is that the lathe seems to run fine particularly at high speeds, when you try and reduce the speed there is a rattle and a little bit of resistance around the 800 rpm mark, machine has been lubed so can only think that it's a pulley or bearing problem.

Converting electrical energy into noise seems to be a characteristic at which many Reeves drive woodturning lathes excel. Those made a long time ago are much higher quality, but those made in the last decade or so have some major weaknesses. The biggest problem is that the Reeves pulleys are made of die cast zinc alloy which appears to simultaneously be too soft and too brittle.

The clattering is mostly due to the movable side of the motor pulley fluttering side to side as it gets excited by the unstable combination of v-belt and undamped spring. The situation grows worse as the pulleys wear out.

You need to investigate what is going on where the control lever hangs at about 800 RPM. I had a similar situation. The yoke had too much free play which led to it tending to cock sideways slightly. That caused an asymmetrical force to be applied to the sliding half of the spindle pulley ... And that caused it to crack at the hub. That was a tough one to find because the failure couldn't be seen without removing the entire pulley and yoke assembly from the headstock. I rebuilt the yoke to get rid of most of the free play which helped, but there isn't any fix for the bad pulley design and now they are no longer available ( the motor pulley is still available, but the price is too high to consider buying a replacement especially considering that it has a short life expectancy.

 

[Tony Caro]

You may well be right in your assessment of my lathe Bill, there is definitely some slop there with the yoke but I can't see what is causing the slop. What is about the yoke that leads to the free play? Once I can understand that I can perhaps attempt a fix for it.

 

[Bill Boehme]

You may well be right in your assessment of my lathe Bill, there is definitely some slop there with the yoke but I can't see what is causing the slop. What is about the yoke that leads to the free play? Once I can understand that I can perhaps attempt a fix for it.

On one side of the yoke is the rod (I guess that it might be called a round rack gear) that moves the yoke. It fits in a hole in the yoke and is held by a roll pin. The hole was oversized so there was some flexing there. On the other side of the yoke there is a smooth follower rod that had the same problem of having a slightly loose fit that allowed flexing. Additionally, the follower rod goes onto a hole in the headstock casting that was significantly oversized. So basically the follower that was supposed to help keep the yoke from flexing wasn't able to perform that function.

Delta sent me a replacement yoke that had holes more closely matched to the rod diameters so there was much less flexing. I modified the yoke by putting in another roll pin on each side approximately 90 degrees to the first roll pins. This eliminated all flexing. In addition to that, I was able to talk a friend with a metal lathe into making me a larger diameter follower rod that had a closer fit to the bore in the headstock. This worked really well and made everything operate much smoother on the spindle pulley. I don't think that I ever took any picture of any of this, unfortunately.

.the pulley on the motor shaft, however, never lasted very long before something would fail. One thing that did help with spring damping was to put a grease filled boot around it. It wasn't fancy, but it did work. I applied a large blob of grease to the spring and then made a boot using a strip of Saran Wrap long enough to make about ten wraps around the spring and secured each end with a zip tie.

 

[Tony Caro]

Thanks again Bill, fair amount of slop between the yoke and the spindle pulley, they rub together and there's even a bit of binding that occurs when i start up the lathe whereby it won't run and it needs a push on the handwheel to get started. I've given everything a good lube, even took the speed changing lever off in case that was causing stiffness, now despite numerous attempts to get it back on i cannot get it to engage properly with the pinion gear in the headstock. The pulleys will not allow me to get the belt on. i can only get 5 speeds out of the 10 to work, what is the trick in reinstalling the spindle pulley and getting all the speeds to work?

 

[Bill Boehme]

A picture or two might help so that I can see if our lathe designs are similar.

One thought that comes to mind is that perhaps the fixed side of the pulley is not at the right location. On mine, the fixed side had something to locate it -- I can't remember exactly what it was -- maybe a pin. I am going by memory of that lathe -- mostly vivid bad memories.

 

[Tony Caro]

Can't see any locating reference for the pulley, should its edge be lined up with the edge on the motor pulley perhaps?
I think the lube has helped because the spindle pulley definitely needed it but now how do I get everything in sync again. I cleaned the pinion gear that the yoke assembly engages with (the one that controls the speed lever) but can't get the full range of speeds now and still can't get the belt on anyway. Is the pinion gear supposed to revolve 360 degrees? HELP!

 

[Bill Boehme]

It is possible that you may have the rack in the wrong position when inserting the pinion gear. Does the pulley have full range of motion when the speed control lever and pinion are removed? If you insert the lever at the low speed position, the pulley halves should be closed together. If you insert the lever at the high speed position, the pulley halves should be spread apart. The fixed side of the pulley ought to be located so that the belt runs near the top when the pulley halves are meshed together. Also, they shouldn't be too far apart or else the belt will fall between them and get trapped at the high speed end.

My guess is that the movable half of the pulley is not in the right location when you are engaging the lever and pinion. From your picture, it appears that your lathe construction is a bit different than mine.

 

[Tony Caro]

Pulley does have full range of motion when speed lever and pinion are removed, once the lever and pinion are installed there is a lot of tension from the spring which makes keeping the spindle pulley closer to the headstock difficult. Do you know what the correct procedure is as far as reinstalling the speed changing lever ie get the spindle pulley right and then the speed lever or vice-versa?

 

[Bill Boehme]

I am afraid that I can't help with that. My lathe did not have a spring. I suppose that you could try installing the level in the low speed position where the spring would be extended and the pulley halves closed together if I understand the picture that you posted.

 

[Tony Caro]

Thanks Bill for all your help, will give that last suggestion I try, I didn't realise there were so many versions of these Reeves pulley systems. You seem to be the worldwide authority on them and have learnt a lot reading your posts.