Subject: Champion blower

From: "David C. Hufford" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 13:07:22 -0400 (EDT)

Vincent:

A similar discussion occurred on the list awhile back regarding leaking 
impeller shaft bearings on the Champion 400 blower.  I'm not able to use 
an oil bath because my 400 leaks.  I resorted to just applying a few 
drops of 60W oil (chain saw bar oil would be fine) to the gears 
occasionally.  Works great.  I believe these old Champion 400 blowers 
would run for years with no lubrication.  One consensus I believe came 
from the previous discussion is DON'T take one of these critters apart 
for cleaning or such.  Ostensibly they are very difficult to reassemble.

D.C. Hufford

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From: "Dave Einhorn" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 14:04:14 EDT

You might try gear grease, since it is less likely to 
drip out.  I recently made 1 complete Champion 400 
blower out of two partial blowers that I found.  One
had a damaged housing and missing grease cup, the other
had an intact housing and grease cups, but everything 
else outside the housing was missing.  So the two 
complemented each other nicely, in terms of missing parts.
If one finds blowers that someone did not complete 
"fixing", and broken ones, and combines the parts maybe
a few more can be put back to work.  Although the time
and effort to repair these things is unlikely to be
made up by the sale price of the working model when 
finished, I feel it is worth the effort to get another
working Champion 400 back in the hands of the Blacksmithing
community.

For more information on reconditioning Champion 400 blowers, I 
believe that Donald Streeter's book, Professional Blacksmithing, goes 
into some detail.  And I agree with David Hufford that reconditioning 
the blowers is for the dedicated, as evidenced by the 
availability of these blowers with missing parts.

I will likely drag the blower that I just finished
putting together to the next tailgating activity, and offer it as
a donation to the guild, if it does not sell rather than dragging 
it home again.

> Date sent:      Thu, 25 Jul 1996 13:07:22 -0400 (EDT)
> Send reply to:  [email-masked]
> From:           "David C. Hufford" <[email-masked]>
> To:             [email-masked]
> Subject:        Champion blower

> for cleaning or such.  Ostensibly they are very difficult to reassemble.
   Dave Einhorn                    
   [email-masked]

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From: Daniel T Crowther <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 10:35:50 -0400 (EDT)

>for cleaning or such.  Ostensibly they are very difficult to reassemble.

Actually, if you're know how to deal with uncaged ball bearings they're not
bad at all to take apart and reassemble.  The tricky part for a novice would
be the bearings.  I've had plenty of experiance with bicycle bearings and so
the blower was a snap.  BTW some special tools are needed for the rear cone
nut on the impeller, and the brass gear.

Swordsmith