This is good news, I was worried there for a bit. Glad it isn't a design
issue, I recently bought Rusty's RD1B. Look forward to hearing what the
source of the clog was.

If there was a restriction in the oil line going to the drive, such that the
drive "saw" a low oil pressure, could that cause something like this? Just a
thought...

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 11:10:33 -0500, Tracy Crook wrote
> Total time on drive was 20 hours.   Steve noticed the problem as an
> oil leak from the input shaft oil seal.  Internal inspection showed
> the input shaft thrust bearing roller cage which is a polymer cage
> to be partially melted and most of the rollers were out of the cage.
>  Overheat was the obvious cause of cage failure.  Rear race of
> bearing was seized on input shaft and was 'blued' from heat. This
> allowed the shaft to move back and contact the adapter plate.  All
> sorts of nastiness resulted from this but the details are not as
> important as the root cause.  Amazingly, the drive continued to
> operate normally but the time between roller cage failure and
> discovery of the problem is unknown.
>
> The oil passage from the input shaft pilot bearing to the thrust
> bearing was found to be clogged and no oil was getting to the thrust
> bearing (except for incidental splash).  What caused the clog has
> not been determined.  I will attempt to carefully grind away the
> input gear and see what it was as time permits.
>
>  
> The rear race was spinning against the adapter plate and acting as
> the thrust bearing while being lubricated only with splash.  That
> Mobile 1 is amazing stuff!
>
> A careful inspection of the gears showed no evidence of damage or wear.
>
> Corrective action:  Replaced the input shaft assembly and thrust
> bearing, installed nylon snubber/spacer to bring input shaft endplay
> into spec.
>
> Tracy Crook,   RWS

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