Occasionally, when trying to remove the pinion gear from the head to get at the bearings to re-lube or replace the pinion assembly, you will find that the pinion will not unscrew from the head, even after removing the hex nut in the head. I've had them bond together from corrosion and/or solidified grease very tightly. The difficulty is that there is no hex to place a wrench on the pinion to unscrew it from the head, without damaging the pinion race with pliers. I've had limited success soaking in penetrating fluid overnight, though I still recommend this.
Below are the steps:
1) Place A/R lever in off position (head should spin freely both directions) - This is very important, otherwise you can easily break the A/R gear teeth on the main gear. And yes, I learned the hard way.
2) Remove crank handle - Otherwise the next steps will tighten the handle so much you won’t be able to get the handle out of the main gear until you reassemble the head with pinion.
3) Remove axle - after removal of oscillation block keeper
4) Remove the pinion hex nut inside head.
5) Remove the pinion set screw – small screw between head and body
6) Pull rotor off of housing with pinion still attached.
7) Apply penetrating oil to pinion threads at top and bottom of rotor, let soak overnight.
8) Re-attach rotor to housing, leave pinion hex nut off and turn pinion screw back in
9) Insert axle, and reinstall Planamatic cam gear, oscillation block and keeper.
10) Use a small piece of solid copper about 1-2mm thick to jam pinion and main gear. – Copper is softer than the steel or the aluminum gearing it is jamming so it wont harm them. The key is to get a good jam between the angled gears. They want to spit the copper out, but once you get a good bite, you are ready to turn the head off the pinion. An abundance of caution can be deployed by using a rag or wood first, but I've typically not had success using these materials to jam the gears when corrosion has occurred.
11) Hold the body in one hand and unscrew the rotor with the other hand (normal counterclockwise removal) – Head should unscrew fairly easily, but sometimes takes more force than you might think.
Sandman
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