I need to replace the leveling cable sheaves on an old "Station Master" 2600# vertical lift. I can't find any information on "Station Master". A Hewitt dealer in the Finger Lakes area told me today that the company did exist and built their own lifts. It looks like a knock-off of a Hewitt lift to me. I am the third owner. I think one of the previous owners "repaired" it with steel sheaves assuming the manufacture would not have used steel. The 4 sheaves at the ends of the tubes running front to back support a cable that is tied to the lift bottom at the front where the winch is and to the top of the lift at the back. This is same as the 5 cable Hewitt configuration. The sheaves that are in it I measured to have an OD of 4.382, and ID of the center race of the SS ball bearing of 5/8 (0.622) a groove depth of about 0.328 and a width of about 0.550. You can see from the pictures that they are pretty badly rusted so I measured them the best that I could.
Assuming these were not the original sheaves does anyone know what was likely in there? The axle holes in the rectangular tubing are now oval or egg shaped but but I think there were centered vertically and 1.25" in from the end. I'm planning to insert some 1/4" plate with a 5/8" hole drilled in the right place inside the tubing on either side to fix the axle wobble but I need to find a replacement sheave. (I want to try to repair this without taking the lift apart and I don't think I could drill a bigger hole with a hand drill for a bushing) I've seen some much wider sheaves that look to me as though they might hold up a lot better. Right now the cable adjustment at least on the top is pretty close to the max (not sure about the eye under water). So a smaller sheave probably means new cables too which I will probably have to swage myself since there are no "spare parts" for this lift as far as I can tell and of course I don't have a swaging tool.
The best replacement that is pretty close to what is in there is http://www.boatliftanddock.com/p-295-shorestation-ball-bearing-pulley-3510178.aspx. The problem is that it says the ID of the bearing in the middle is 0.98 If that is right there is no way I could press fit a nominal 1" axle or spacer in.
Any information on the original lift construction and how to repair it?
Assuming these were not the original sheaves does anyone know what was likely in there? The axle holes in the rectangular tubing are now oval or egg shaped but but I think there were centered vertically and 1.25" in from the end. I'm planning to insert some 1/4" plate with a 5/8" hole drilled in the right place inside the tubing on either side to fix the axle wobble but I need to find a replacement sheave. (I want to try to repair this without taking the lift apart and I don't think I could drill a bigger hole with a hand drill for a bushing) I've seen some much wider sheaves that look to me as though they might hold up a lot better. Right now the cable adjustment at least on the top is pretty close to the max (not sure about the eye under water). So a smaller sheave probably means new cables too which I will probably have to swage myself since there are no "spare parts" for this lift as far as I can tell and of course I don't have a swaging tool.
The best replacement that is pretty close to what is in there is http://www.boatliftanddock.com/p-295-shorestation-ball-bearing-pulley-3510178.aspx. The problem is that it says the ID of the bearing in the middle is 0.98 If that is right there is no way I could press fit a nominal 1" axle or spacer in.
Any information on the original lift construction and how to repair it?
