Traveller Sheave / Pulley

[Graham]

Looking for one sheave / pulley wheel for my 1997 C34 MkII.  Can be seized, don't mind as will be replacing ball-bearings.  Dimensions of sheave are 1 3/4 inch dia, 5/8 inch wide and 5/16 inch hole / bore.  So if you have recently replaced traveller and have a sheave / pulley that you don't want, will pay what you want plus postage.

[waughoo]

Suggest you call Garhauer.  They arent terribly expensive and they can make sure you get the right load charecteristic for your application.

[Stu Jackson]

Alex, he's in the UK.  Might be easier to try other means of contact than phone, but I recall Garhauer was always better at talking than electronic contact.

[waughoo]

Oops... jumped the gun without looking at the signature.

[Ted Pounds]

Alex, he's in the UK.  Might be easier to try other means of contact than phone, but I recall Garhauer was always better at talking than electronic contact.

In this age of VOIP I think calling is dirt cheap.  Only real issue is adjusting for the time difference...

[Graham]

Thanks all, I did contact Garhauer (the manufacturer of my traveller) but they do not stock the sheaves I was after as they are at least 24 years old and now obsolete. Barton do a similar size diameter and width but slightly smaller bore.  So am getting them and will drill the bore out to 5/16 inch.  By the way I have found Garhauer really helpful over the years and in my experience they produce first class products delivered with first class service - great company.  Again thanks to all who responded.

[waughoo]

Glad to hear you got it sorted.  From what I understand Garhauer also does custom work too.  When exploring new deck organizers, they offered to have me send in what I had and they would make a triple with the same screw offset so I wouldn't have to re drill the deck.  As it turns out I went with one of their stock units and did re drill the deck, but I certainly filed that option away for the future.

[Graham]

Thanks Alex, the sheaves I was after were those for the traveller carriage not the end blocks to the traveller.

On your issue of the end blocks, I have two triple blocks and all six sheaves had seized.  I am told that the reason they seize is salt and lubicating oil (should not use WD40 or normal lubes) as they jam the ball bearings.   The jammed ball-bearings then wear down on one side and make indents in the housing.

I tried to get replacement sheaves, but could not find them; they are a slightly different size to those on the carriage 1 3/4" diameter, 5/8" wide with a bore of 3/8".  So I bought some Delrin (Acetal) 3/16" plastic ball-bearings; Torlon are better, but I could not find them at a reasonable price in the UK.  Took off blocks with the help of PB Blaster, took out sheaves and popped-out the old ball-bearings.  That will leave the outer ring and central core loose.   

Degreased, cleaned and sanded-back the housing (both outer ring and core); worth spending a bit of time to get them clean and smooth.  Then got two ice-cream sticks to raise the outer housing to line-up the ball-bearing tracks, placed all ball bearings for one side on the track and then used a flexible piece of plastic (indian take-away box lid) to cover all the ball-bearings and gently squeased them back into the track.  You need to use a flexible piece of plastic to cover them all otherwise the balls will pop out.  Turned the sheave over and inserted ball bearings on the other side.  Gave the new ball-bearings a few drops of "McLube One Drop" (what should be used to lubricate plastic ball-bearings) and assembled back together.  While you are at it, might as well replace the cam-cleats (Harken standard size -Height: 30mm - Width: 32mm) and replace securing bolts (UNF 10/32 x 1 1/2") and use a bit of Loctite Threadlocker - it also protects against corrosion.

Took me 4 hours to do and is much cheaper than getting an upgrade.  Hope you find this useful.