After nearly 30 years of holding up my TH7 and D40, the thrust bearing
was pretty rough. The T2X never had any trouble turning it, but I took
it apart to see what was going on. I found the surfaces of the two
aluminum pieces deeply indented by the ball bearings. It's scrap metal
now, but I wonder if the long periods I left the antenna in one position
might have made things worse. Would it have helped to just turn it once
a week or so? Or is such failure inevitable? After all, once the
bearings create the slightest indentation, they're going to always
settle into those positions, making them worse. I suppose one could
periodically take it down and smooth out the surfaces, but who is going
to bother with that? It lasted almost 30 years, so I got my money's worth.
Another possibility: Would it be better to leave the bearing set screws
slightly loose, so the rotator takes the vertical load?
73,
Scott K9MA
--
Scott K9MA
k9ma@sdellington.us
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|