Return Roller Refirbishment

OZM29C · February 5, 2020

Rather than lumping my M29C weasel restoration into a single topic, I will post multiple topics to make it easier to view and comment on.

I picked up a set of return rollers that already had new rubber on them. I got them from a cache of Spare parts that came out of Antarctica (another story) back in the 90's. First photo show me sorting through just one of the many parts bins. Over the years and spending a lot of time and $$$$ I assembled enough NOS spares to finally refurbish my return rollers. Second Photo.

The third and fourth photo shows what can happen to NOS parts when stored for many years. In this case the end was almost corroded away. I have kept this shaft as a spare but fortunately I had another return roller shaft to replace the corroded/damaged shaft.

I had noticed that the majority of the ex Antarctic return rollers had been retrofitted with Bronze bushings in lieu of the OEM needle rollers. In view that my weasel will be used in the water and the modification had well and truly proved itself in Antarctica, I machined and fitted new bronze bushings to my return rollers. I was able to fit a longer bushing to one side of the roller to better carry the load.

After cleaning the grease nipple thread followed by bead blasting and etch priming, I was able to put together the return roller assembly ready for a final coat of paint.

A friend of mine owns a CNC paper cutting machine that came in handy to cut new gaskets. See PDF

Cheers JW