Valiant Ball Reduction Drive

[N2LK]

Me again, I would like to lube the ball reduction drive but cant figure out how to remove this panel..."escutcheon off"

See photo. I see the 2 little nuts/bolts...I have take the 2 little nuts off but that escutcheon panel wont budge...I have looked at constrution manual and not seeing it clearly..I have read and re-read the very nice WQ9E topics on this but not seeing how this gets removed to reach the drive.

I hate to go pry around the rubber gasket edge before asking the experts.

Thanks
72 John-N2LK

[N1BCG]

The nuts holding the two lamp lenses have to come off as well.

[WB5IRI]

The pilot lamp jewel holders need to be unscrewed from inside the radio. They are really just threaded tubes that admit light from the two lamps inside the radio, one for power on and one for transmit.

Doug

[N2LK]

Yup, some tapping lightly on the back of the jewel loosed it up nicely!!

Thanks guys
73
John-N2LK

[KA2DZT]

Not sure if those reduction drives should be lubricated.  They may begin to slip.  Try some WD-40 if it is not smooth operating.  I've use a number of those reduction drives in my HB xmtr and don't remember lubricating them.

[N2LK]

I put some oil on the shaft (very little) but not sure how to get to the ball bearings??

I had the side panel of VFO open the other day put some lube on the cap, helped alot.
I pulled the VFO bearings out of a TS-520 and cleaned and lube with synthetic grease and its
SMOOTH...would like to do here as well.

Behind the panel is the large nut and then the small shaft into VFO housing. I see no screws
for the coupling connection...

All help is VERY much appreciated...this is a TON  of fun!
73
John-N2LK

[N2LK]

Well I will answer my own question, pulled off the front panel (pretty easy), and went into
the VFO....

The coupler nuts were TIGHT...still fighting the last one....

and of course broke the plastic coupler! 

Oh well, more fun to be had to figure out a new coupler.
73
John-N2LK

[W9BHI]

Go to Ebay and look up "VFO coupler repair kit".
He has sold over 200 of these kits.

Don

[N2LK]

this is great..thanks

[W1RKW]

the few Heathkits I've owned had Jackson reduction drives that would slip. Don't know if Johnsons use the same or a variation but I have disassembled, cleaned and relubricated the Jackson drive.  The trick to getting them to work correctly again when reassembling is not to over compress the wave disc type spring and have a clean work environment. The slightest spec of dust or dirt will waste your time. You want to do this only once because the casing is aluminum and the tabs that hold the halves together will snap off if you have to open it up a 2nd time.

[WQ9E]

John,

I own a lot of EF Johnson gear and have worked on a lot of it.  Here is some info about the ball reduction drive from a hints sheet I put together about the Valiant, hopefully it helps:

"The VFO tuning for the Valiant should be very smooth but by now most have a “crunchy” feel. This is due to dry/contaminated
lube in the ball reduction drive assembly. This is easy to clean and lubricate and will restore smooth VFO action while avoiding
excess wear to the mechanism which can only be replaced by finding one from a parts unit. The front escutcheon (but not the
entire panel) needs to be removed. After the exciter and plate controls are removed you will find nuts holding the bottom of the
escutcheon in place while the pilot lamp assemblies hold the top. One set of set screws for the coupler is accessed via a hole in
the chassis. Once the ball reduction drive is out it disassembles into two halves by unscrewing, I use rubber jaws in my bench
vise to hold the thread half while turning the other with a wrench. Once it begins to loosen remove it from the vise or other
holding fixture and finish disassembly over a container to catch any of the ball bearings that may fall out. Most will have 4 ball
bearings, 3 that mount in the sides with a 4th that forms a thrust bearing at the end of the shaft but I did repair one that had the
thrust bearing cast as part of the shaft. I have yet to find worn bearings but if they are (or you lose one) they are standard size
individual balls that can be found at any bearing supply house. Thoroughly remove the old lube (WD-40 actually works pretty well
as a degreaser), dry the parts, and then reassemble using fresh lube. I use the same synthetic grease I use for the grease
fittings on my truck and tractor but any good quality lube will be fine (do NOT use lubriplate). The only somewhat tricky part is
determining the proper pre-load to apply to this bearing assembly which is set by how tightly the case halves are screwed
together. Too loose and you will have slippage, too tight results in stiff tuning and excess wear. There is a pretty broad range of
settings that will work so just go by feel and it should be fine."

This same coupler is used in the Ranger, 500, Navigator, Pacemaker etc. and they are very smooth turning when properly lubed. Shoot me an email if you want the rest of the Valiant hints sheet of common Valiant issues.  I had one as my novice rig in 1975

Rodger WQ9E