"bernie" wrote:

Hi all-a few more photos of my Pinion Assembly before I finish it up. I can't convince myself a few of the new parts I purchased are necessary:

See attached pictures of new latches and current latches. The new latches are the second set and do not pair very well. Not the difference in manufacturing. One of the new ones will mate up in the sleeve OK and allow for free movement with both of my current latches. Does anyone have any experience with this-this is my second set of new latches that do not move freely when fit into the sleeve.

Thanks-Bernie

Uh-oh, you’ve got me worried now, I picked up a NOS 2 tooth latch from Florin as mine was missing a tooth. Haven’t taken it out of the plastic wrapper yet, here’s hoping it fits well the old single tooth latch..

Couple of thoughts Bernie:
- the latches, when installed in the sleeve and positioned in the latched position, should present the latching surface flat. Maybe the photos don't do justice but I really looks like one of your new latches doesn't have a flat latching surface. I'd get the sleeve by itself, install the latches, and take the latch bolt in your hand and fit it in between the latches in the latched position. Note the latch separation, then take the bolt out, reposition the latches with that separation, and then using the end of a ruler or something, assess whether the latching surfaces are flat - that's really the only part that is critical on the latches. If not, those surfaces can be reworked some to true them up
- the rolling surfaces on the dogs per Eddie B should be rounded all the way through their operation. They should also be evenly worn. One of yours looks more worn than the other. So if you didn't want to buy new ones, you could try to match up the rounded profile of the most worn dog to that of the least worn, and then file down the least worn to match the most worn you just rounded. That should equalize the engaging force on the three dogs. You can check by tieing the dogs closed in the engaged position, then sitting the spider/dogs on your flat bench and verifying that it's sitting flat. You could wind the spider onto the shaft and sit the end through a hole in your bench so that you can better assess that the shaft is perpendicular to the bench - check in three angles around the shaft tangential to each dog. That should get you fairly close. The plate that the dogs bear on should be flat and not gouged worn for all this to be effective so you might need to take a few thou off it

Bernie, an update. I had latches like your old ones. I replaced the spring, figuring it was an easy thing to try, and that's what made all the difference to my "staying latched" problem. I took out the old spring and compared it to the new one from the local Cat dealer. It was shorter and malformed, and felt to my finger squeeze softer. Anyhoo, after installing the new spring and a couple of adjustments, it now works perfectly, even with somewhat worn latches, so your old ones may well be just fine.