Heidelberg GTO52 Impression Cylinder cam follower

Good day Guys, Please help as my GTO 52 impression cylinder cam follower is worn and i have gotten a replacement bearing. what is the easiest way to change it as this looks complicated. Not much space to work in, what should I do first to remove worn one?

 

Lyndon - Nothing easy about it. You have to loosen all gripper clamping pieces, extract the taper pin in the follower lever, push the gripper shaft over to gear side until the lever comes loose, install new follower...reverse procedure, upon successful completion of reinstallation of lever, insert 2mm shim under the gripper finger and fully compress spring and lock up clamping piece.

 

As you can see in my profile, Lyndon, I live in the brittle cold state of Minnesota (brrrrrrr) and long for tropical breezes....wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

 

Thanks from sunny Belize

Thank you so much, this will make my wanting to do the job quickly now as I was procrastinating....scared. thanks again an do come to our tropical paradise...there is so much sun and breeze to share here especially at the cayes.

 

Ive replaced impression cylinder cam followers by pulling out the operator side bearing housing. this will allow you to pull out the cam follower though the bearing housing hole without doing anything to the grippers. You will need to use something to support the cylinder on the operator side. not a good idea to just let it hang on the drive side bearing.

 

Good form, ex-heidmech, but for a novice...I probably wouldn't recommend they start fiddling with the main cylinder bearing. Enough potential for damage going the route I suggested. If they screw up the needle cage, it's now wait for the Heidelberg agency to come in to fit a new bearing. Agree?

 

Either way this is not a job for a novice. Your suggestion also will likely need a Heidelberg tech. Once they loosen the clamping pieces on the grippers there is little chance of them getting it set correctly and even if they do they have no chance of getting gripper opening/closing times set correctly. There is a better chance of pulling the bearing housing, replacing the cam follower and reinstalling the housing. No need to mess with gripper pretension or gripper opeing and closing times.

 

If done as I suggested, there is no need to make any corrections or adjustments on the individual set screws. That is, unless they were screwing with them before the cam follower change. The pretension is fully restored with the simple procedure I mentioned.

 

Actually, I was trying to get a free trip to Belize...but sounds like Lyndon is a brave soul and is willing to do this himself

 

Yeah, I did read your procedure. It will get him close which may be good enough if its the last printing unit. However, intermediate printing units do need to have the grippers readjusted after a procedure like yours. If not, he will likely get dropped sheets or a nasty slur. Ive seen it dozens of times going in after other independants. Either way, good luck with your repair Lyndon.

 

Nice, ex-heid. Fifteen years with Heid under my belt and another fifteen on my own. I'm on this forum to give quality advice to those who ask, and I ask nothing for it. Made some good connections, met some great guys. If I felt there was a possibility that the grippers needed to be readjusted with the degree wheel after following my suggestions, I would have mentioned it. As a matter of fact, I have seriously cautioned a number of guys in the past. Do you reset grippers on a large format after changing a cam follower? Maybe my mentors neglected to fill me in on the importance of doing so.

 

Any tips on removing the taper pin?

 

Heat and a slide hammer. I've often redrilled and tapped out the existing 4mm threads to to 5mm, just to get a more solid pull. If that fails, drill it out.

 

I will be undertaking this repair tomorrow(although it will be the transfer cylinder as opposed to the impression cylinder) any tips would be appreciated. Do you have to loosen all gripper assemblies or just the one nearest thee gear side to allow room for the bar to slide?

 

You're on the low side of the cam in this case. Grippers are swung open. Shaft has to be moved towards gear side the full width of the lever, so yes, all gripper clamping pieces have to be loosened. A previous post(er) mentioned supporting the cylinder and removing bearing housing, may be easier, may not. You know us independents, always doing things our own way. Dripping sarcasm intended . Too many learned tricks of the trade to go into using this forum. Just clean/wire brush all components well before proceeding, leave snap ring and spacer on at drive side, you may use a gripper body and aluminum drift to work shaft over, but tread lightly. You'll make matters far worse and create huge expense for yourself if done haphazardly. You're going to have problems resetting the positioning and pretensions. PM me and Ill see if I can help you finalize the settings. Highly suggest you call someone who's done this before.

 

Just letting you know what your getting involved with here. Not the easiest of jobs even if you have the right tools. Doesnt matter if your a professional and have done this many times or you just know "tricks of the trade", its the end result that matters. 2 methods to do this. By sliding the gripper bar over you need quite a bit of tools. First you have to get the taper in out which is easier said than done many times. Sometimes you get lucky and it comes right out. Second you need to release all the clamping pieces for the grippers on the gripper bar so you can slide the gripper bar over. This means that you will need to reset gripper pretension and gripper opening/closing times. This requires a tool to set the pretention, a degree wheel, a stud bolt for the degree wheel, a press zero gauge for GTO, pointer for degree wheel, proper setting for pretention and you need to know the proper gripper opening/closing times of the cylinder you are working on. This could end up to be a job in excess of 6 hours for someone that knows what they are doing. Second method is to remove the bearing housing on the operator side. Likely you will not need any of these tools. No need to release gripper clamping pieces so you dont need to readjust grippers or pretention. This method however is not quite so easy either. Depending on the cylinder you many need to remove linkages in way of the housing. Also, you will need to support the cylinder. As suggested above it would be a great idea to either just call Heidelberg or an independant who has done this before. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

Ok, you guys are officially freaking me out!
First of all thank you to both for your input, it is really helpful!
We have had this press for 17 years. Until recently we have used an independent that was awesome! He is older and spends his winters in Florida. I have been making the majority if repairs on the machine the past few years(mostly with the alcolor). I don't have a ton of confidence in the independent pool that's left. Heidelberg is a ton if money we would like to avoid, but of course I don't want to call them after I've screwed it up either so your warnings are valid.
Please tell me, with all do respect to both if your's experience what I'm missing?
I seems to me the only thing that needs to be removed to "free"up the lever is the taper pin. After that why can I not loosen the far end (gear side) gripper assembly which seems like it would give me the enough room to move the bar over and remove the lever? I'm not challenging your ideas just trying to learn what would happen if I had proceeded that way before I found this forum.
Thanks!

 

Look closely at the distance between the gripper clamping pieces and the pillow blocks, you'll see how much room you have to make to get the shaft over.

 

Ok. I see. Duh. The 2 on the gear side end and probably 2 on the op side if each pillow block(by pillow block I assume you're referencing the parts I would call a grease hub) at minimum. I'm gonna go with your method. I'm a little scared but I feel once I get the lever off and the follower replaced I can fumble my way through getting it back together and the grippers lined up again. Any surprises you see in my future? Any springs gonna fly off at me? Anything gonna fall out I'm not tracking on? I really want to do this and have it be a success!

 

You're a madman, Steve . Main spring is gonna give you crap, but you'll see what needs to be done, watch that you don't lose the plastic washer. Repositioning and resetting pretensions are also something you're not considering when thinking this through. Maybe you could get ahold of Clark in his vacation paradise to get you the info you need? Too much info to be put out through this forum.