Do you want gears made?

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Richard D

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I was on here a month or so ago asking about firms that could make bevel gears for my ancient whitlock wheel steering gear box. I found this company on the net Bandhgears, they were great made the two gears in a week for £380 would recomend them to all. They do all types of gears so give them a try.
 
Hello Richard, sounds very interesting. I too have an ancient whitlock system and my gearbox is a bit sloppy in the middle of the quadrant. This is the gearbox which converts the rotary motion to arm motion for connection to the tiller. Was this what you had renewed?
 
Flossdog said:
Hello Richard, sounds very interesting. I too have an ancient whitlock system and my gearbox is a bit sloppy in the middle of the quadrant. This is the gearbox which converts the rotary motion to arm motion for connection to the tiller. Was this what you had renewed?
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Have you tried tightening it up by removing some of the shims?
 
No it was the bevel gears under the pedistal. I have got the rear gearbox stripped down at the moment, it is a simple unit of the type used in steering boxes on cars of the 4o's 50's and 60's. Mine had backlash in the gears and like car steering boxes there is an adjusting pin with a lock nut, to get rid of the backlash you screw the pin in. When screwed it in to get rid of the backlash I had the same problem as you, it went tight in the middle of the travel. I found the true reason for the backlash was that the support ball races were not adjusted correctly and allowing the main spiral to move about. These bearings can be adjusted by shims on the end plates, I had to take 2 of the 3 shims fitted out. When i did this all the play went and I adjusted the pin easily and the motion is now perfect. I do not think you will find any problems with bearings as they are protected by ep140 gear oil the same as in lorry differentials.
I think my whitlock unit is circa 1968 as that was when the boat was built and all info from others about suggestions it was from the 70's or 80 was proved incorrect. I dont know how old your unti is but hopefully it is constructed the same as mine and if so the above should sort your problem
 
Thanks Richard and Wotayottie. My system is not so ancient, it dates from 1987. The problem I have is there is a bevel gear which runs on a quadrant. In the middle, where most of the wear takes place, there is some play. I can take the shims out on the bevel gear as it enters the gearbox so that there is no play but at either end of the quadrant it is extremely tight and I fear that the cast brass quadrant will crack :eek: The play is not really excessive about 10 deg on the wheel but I would really like no play and a nice tight system. Strangely there is zero play on the pedestal bevel gears.
 
From what you say yours is a diferent type if i have understood correctly what yours is like. Mine consists of a spiral which is turned by the motion from the wheel drive shaft, this spiral acts on a shaped hardened pin that sits in the spiral and as the spiral rotates it it moves the pin from side to side, this motion being what gives the side to side motion that moves the rudder from side to side.
I have not seen the type of gear arrangement lime yours.
It sounds like the quadrant gear the bevel gear acts against is worn, as to get the play out in the middle you have adjusted the bevel lower down to the bottom of the quadrant teeth. This as you will appreciate this is the area that takes most wear due to the middle section being in use 80 % of a boats time at sea. The ends of the mating gear will not be as worn, so when you have adjusted the bevel gear to have no play in the middle it is probably bottoming on the less worn outer ends of the mating gear and so being stiff, sounds like you need a new quadrant gear but prefeably renew both, unless you can suffer the stiffness. It should wear itself better but only if the material is softer than the bevel as if now, you will just wear the bevel and it will become slack in the middle again
 
Yes, you are right, my gearbox is different to yours. Not sure if it is better though! I need to talk to some gear experts and the Bandhgears sound as though they could help. My uneducated solution would be to recut the quadrant gear teeth so that they are constant all the way around the quadrant. I might need a new bevel gear but if they can cut to the same profile, might not. Pity that Bandhgears are not in South Wales but they are not too far away and a day trip to see them might be worthwhile. Again, thanks for the tip Richard.
 
check this part

Flossdog said:
Thanks Richard and Wotayottie. My system is not so ancient, it dates from 1987. The problem I have is there is a bevel gear which runs on a quadrant. In the middle, where most of the wear takes place, there is some play. I can take the shims out on the bevel gear as it enters the gearbox so that there is no play but at either end of the quadrant it is extremely tight and I fear that the cast brass quadrant will crack :eek: The play is not really excessive about 10 deg on the wheel but I would really like no play and a nice tight system. Strangely there is zero play on the pedestal bevel gears.
Click to expand...

On the bottom of the Whitlock there is a transfer arm that connects the Whitlock to the rudder stock, on both ends of this arm are what in non marine terms would be track rod ends and if these are worn they will give the symptoms you describe, from Lewmar they are a mortgage but if you need new ones reply to this post and I will try and find where I got S/S replacements from, not cheap but lot better than Lewmar. There is a chap on the South Coast who specializes in Lewmar kit do search on here because he has often been recommended.
Keith
 
Hi Cagey, no, I've checked every linkage from the wheel to the gearbox and all are tight with no play. The chap on the southcoast runs www.winchservicing.com and he is very knowledgeable on all things Whitlock. He has "new" gearboxes but at £600+ I do have a problem spending this amount just to fix some play. Of course, if it gets worse then I will have to do something but I hope to keep it going for a few more seasons :)
 
Difficult to know what the gears are (size, type, material) from the discussion here, but off the shelf gears are available from http://www.hpcgears.com/ and they also make custom ones. Not suggesting anything wrong with any other supplier - just this is a source I have used for other projects myself.
 
Richard D said:
No it was the bevel gears under the pedistal. I have got the rear gearbox stripped down at the moment, it is a simple unit of the type used in steering boxes on cars of the 4o's 50's and 60's.
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Think you will find this is from a MK 10 Jaguar! That is what was used on a very early Moody 33 I looked at with Whitlock steering.
 
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