Hougen HMD505 mag drill

[bluedog225]

I picked up this mag drill at Restore pretty cheap. It seems to run fine and looks to be in good shape but the high low speed selector doesn’t work. It’s jammed into high speed. Which is probably fine because I’ll never cut 1 1/8” metal.

But I like my equipment to being working in order. And I’d like to fix it. I can try to call the company tomorrow and check, but I thought I’d check here first.

Anybody familiar with this machine? The gearbox looks pretty simple and I‘m hoping if I opened it the problem would be obvious. Maybe the gear shift pin is out of wack or needs grease or is broken.

Before I open it up, any thoughts or warnings appreciated.

Thanks

 

[jack stand]

It looks very straightforward and that listed "kit" might indicate that it's a common service item.
Pop off that top cover, maybe it's obvious or just a little soaking and lube.
I agree with you, get it 100%

 

[bluedog225]

Well, opening it up hasn’t revealed much. I’ll need to get the grease out of there and have a closer look. Nothing is obviously chewed up or out of place.

The selector switch jiggles, and the gears move up and down a bit, but the gears won’t fall into place for the lower speed.

It looks like that parts kit referenced on the parts diagram is available. Though the website description is not very helpful.

Fortunately they’re still in business and I’ll try giving them a call or sending them a message.

for 70 bucks, that parts kit may give me the instructions I need to fix it.

i’m going to get out as much of that grease as I can so I can have a better look at some of the smaller parts. I was thinking of laying the thing on its side and using something like brake cleaner.

any issues in brake cleaner? Or is there something better?

 

[bluedog225]

Edit-actually, looking at that gearshift parts kit, those appear simply to be the switch parts. That is the parts that might get broken off if you bang that against something. I’m not sure that’s gonna be the issue.

 

[bluedog225]

Good news.

It works fine. The side selector switch had a nub (part no. 8) that sets into an indentation. You have to pull the switch out a fraction of an inch to free it up. Then it moves between positions.

The spring (part no. 9) should have given that away if I were smarter. That is not the case.

normally, I would break the switch off, trying to switch it or F this thing up somehow. It looks like I’m going to be able to put this back together with no damage. That’s not a first but that’s not normally how these things go. I love how rebuildable heavy duty commercial equipment Is.

I did remove a fair amount of grease with paper towels. So I could visualize what was going on. It looks like light gray lithium grease I’m guessing. What do you think to put back in there?

thanks

 

[GeoBruin]

Clamp it down and turn the spindle by hand with the top off. See what spins and then throw the switch. See if you can see what's not happening.

Edit: oops. Too late. Glad it worked out.

 

[bluedog225]

Ok. One more question.

I called the company about replacing the grease I took out. They said to fill it half way with any medium duty grease. Fine.

Went to the shed and I’ve got several tubes of Lucas red and tacky, No. 2. Will that do?

Or is the drop point too high? I know just about nothing regarding grease grades.