Myford super 7 clutch ball fallen out and ML8 stand

I have an imacculate myford super 7 at work and while I am quite familiar with them having grown up around one this is a 1980s long bed with power cross feed and gearbox that was acquired refurbished when I joined the company.

Two questions.

1.) It is on an ML8 stand in green but is lacking the bit ML8s have which the bowl turning attachment fits too and has a deeper front support under the tray with my ford logo as per ML7 stands. It has the square missing through where the ML8 belt goes through.... Is this stand dtrong enough for the lathe? It fits with standard long bed deep tray and coolant drain perfectly and does not move at all. the headstock area seems to be reinforced with angle iron about 10mm thick which it is bolted through. The tailstock though is reinforced either side of the mount point.

Its heavy, solid ridgid but Im just interested if its worth looking for a replacement even though the raising blocks spread the weight as does th estand and it measures the same as a long bed stand on ebay.

2.) The clutch was being investigated when it was dismantled for moving and on taking the black plastic cap off the clutch knob side there was a ball bearing about 3mm to 4mm diameter loose inside . It seems this was used as a detent with a small spring to the cam knob on top of the large spring and big ball bearing to engage the cluch cone/plates. Does anyone have any idea how I safely get this back in? the clutch works but is a bit floppy.

If I can get the cam knob out by undoing the hex grub screw underneath it I can probably push th ebearing back in but keeping it there while compressing the small screw and pushing the cam knob back in would be hard!

Regards

If the hole into which the spring and ball fit is close to ball diameter, refit spring and ball, hold in place with a flat faced punch (or better, a snap head rivet punch of suitable size). Sharp tap with hammer should close the hole enough to just trap the ball as it tries to leap out.

The whole clutch assembly is very simple to remove, undo the grub screws that hold the thrust collar and the pulley on the shaft slide the shaft towards the clutch end and look for the woodruff keyin the space between the thrust collar and the pulley, remove it and the whole assembly should pull out. The spring and ball can be replaced in the push rod with a good blob of grease to hold it in position, it will do its best to fall out but it can be done. Reassemble the pulley and collar following the instruction in the manual and adjust the clutch for correct operation again follow the manual procedure for this. It has probably taken me as long to type this as it does to do the job but I only use one finger.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 22/11/2016 12:24:14

My very early Super 7 does not have this ball and spring, and the clutch works just fine. I am guessing they were added to keep some tension on the mechanism to reduce any risk of rattles. I can't see that it would do any harm if they were not fitted.

Mike