As you may recall the welded on pipes on the Slew Pot cylinders on my 3CX have been scalped by that pesky bracket that I've now removed, and whether I try to weld on new pipes, or if I replace them they will have to come off. They are each retained by four blooming great 1" bolts that are torqued up to 970 Newton Metres
I had already attempted to undo them with my 3/4" socket set and a 5 foot scaffold pole to no avail. More in hope than expectation I had ordered a cheap Chinese 'Torque Multiplier Set' on eBay - proper professional ones cost several hundreds of pounds so I didn't expect much for my £60 including postage. There were even cheaper ones on eBay but I chose this one as it came with a fair selection of sockets (including the 38 mm / 1-1/2" one I needed) and quoted a maximum torque of 3200 Newton Metres.
Well today it arrived. Turning it by hand it felt rather horrid - I wasn't over surprised, but to give it a fair chance I stripped it down to grease pack it. Consisting of three sets of sun / planet gears in a common ring gear there was a nominal bit of grease on the outer set, but deeper in there was none. I packed (probably over packed) it with a decent grease and put it back to work.
And does it work . . . . you bet your boots it does . . . I couldn't believe how easily the first bolt came out just cranking lightly on the 10" handle that is provided. The advert says it has 58:1 gearing - I didn't count teeth but I can well believe it. I think it was well worth stripping and greasing as it doesn't feel at all bad now !
I had already attempted to undo them with my 3/4" socket set and a 5 foot scaffold pole to no avail. More in hope than expectation I had ordered a cheap Chinese 'Torque Multiplier Set' on eBay - proper professional ones cost several hundreds of pounds so I didn't expect much for my £60 including postage. There were even cheaper ones on eBay but I chose this one as it came with a fair selection of sockets (including the 38 mm / 1-1/2" one I needed) and quoted a maximum torque of 3200 Newton Metres.
Well today it arrived. Turning it by hand it felt rather horrid - I wasn't over surprised, but to give it a fair chance I stripped it down to grease pack it. Consisting of three sets of sun / planet gears in a common ring gear there was a nominal bit of grease on the outer set, but deeper in there was none. I packed (probably over packed) it with a decent grease and put it back to work.
And does it work . . . . you bet your boots it does . . . I couldn't believe how easily the first bolt came out just cranking lightly on the 10" handle that is provided. The advert says it has 58:1 gearing - I didn't count teeth but I can well believe it. I think it was well worth stripping and greasing as it doesn't feel at all bad now !
