# Stuck Arbor Housing on Craftsman Table Saw



## jonas190 (Jun 11, 2011)

Hi,

I have two Craftsman table saws circa 1984-1985, model no. 113.298240, both suffering from the same problem. The Arbor Housing (part no. 30420), which controls the blade depth adjustment, is incredibly slow and difficult to turn. On one saw it has frozen completely. There is a shaft connecting the Arbor Housing to the Cradle (part no. 62489) on which the Arbor Housing is meant to rotate. I figured that both of these saws are old, lubricated with engine oil and full of saw dust, and probably just needed a good cleaning to free them up. Not so!

After cleaning all visible residue from the mechanism, spraying with penetrating oil, working it back and forth, even leaving it over-night, nothing has freed up the action. I've also tried removing the Lift Screw (part no. 62697) and Link (part no. 62312) so as to remove the Arbor Housing from the Cradle shaft and clean it that way, but it refuses to come off. I've actually cracked both of the plastic hand wheels trying to rotate the mechanism. Now I'm stuck with a crescent wrench.

Both of these saws are used, purchased from separate owners, and both suffer the same problem. Is this a widespread issue? Was there a recall or part defect? How do I best fix it without paying for in-home service?

Thanks,
Devin

Here is a link the manual with diagrams.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

I have that model saw and have no problems with the mechanisms. Of course I never tried to lub it with motor oil or anything similar.

In fact I have never lubed anything on it expect for the motor. Yes, I know that the manual says to lube with number 20 or 30 engine oil. In my opinion all that ever does is cause massive dust collection and massive grease balls and future problems just as you have discovered. I periodically vacuum and use a blower to clean all the parts. 

The only lube I would ever use would some type of "dry" lube. And even then I would use it very sparingly.

With the edition of an upgraded fence that has been an excellent saw.

George


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

Penetrating oil is good to have around, but in some cases, there it can have a difficult time to penetrate. I have had my own share of things being stuck.

Do you have a heat gun? This may expand the items enough to break the present bond and allow the oil to penetrate.

Can you put the entire assembly in e.g., a pail of solvent such as kerosene. I would not recommend gasoline due to fumes and fire hazard.

Not many options I am afraid. I would also not expect a service technician to be much more help, other than recommending getting replacement parts. Very expensive.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*There are 2 locks on that saw*

One locks the tilt, the other is a sliding push/pull lever that locks the blade height. Obviously they must be unlocked. :yes: The tilt lock is a wrench type affair that slips in and out to get a different grip position and is spring loaded part number 29 and 30.
The sliding lever is part no 36. All the way "in" is locked.
http://www.managemylife.com/mmh/lis_pdf/OWNM/L0801111.pdf

What happens is that crud builds up in the trunnions and causes them to hang up. Also crud builds up in the threads of the adjustment rods and must be removed. A string can be wrapped around the threads and pulled back and forth to clean the threads. Then a very light lubricant that will dry and not collect more crud can be sprayed on the threads both male and female. Every so often this is a necessary maintenance project on these old saws. 
Dust collection suffers on these and as a result the crud builds up. An air hose now and then can be used tol blow out the loose dust.  bill


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## jonas190 (Jun 11, 2011)

woodnthings said:


> What happens is that crud builds up in the trunnions and causes them to hang up. Also crud builds up in the threads of the adjustment rods and must be removed. bill


It's definitely nothing to do with the trunnions. I'm talking about the arbor housing which controls raising and lowering the blade, not tilting it. Also, I cleaned all of the gear mating surfaces already. It's difficult to move the housing even by taking out the worm and hitting it with a mallet and block of wood (which I tried just to shock it and maybe loosen it up, to no avail.)



woodnthings said:


> One locks the tilt, the other is a sliding push/pull lever that locks the blade height. ... The sliding lever is part no 36. All the way "in" is locked.


Can you clarify for me? There doesn't appear to be any thing like what you describe labeled no. 36 on the diagrams. I also don't see anything like it looking at the saw.


I agree with George, dry lubrication and a shot of compressed air makes a lot more sense on saws with such poor dust collection. Unfortunately, it's too late for that since someone already gummed them up.


Tonight I tried oven cleaner, but failed again, so it looks like I'll be taking the arbor out of the housing, then taking the housing+cradle off of the table and going with Dave's suggestion.

Any idea how well kerosene penetrates compared to MEK, mineral spirits, etc? Will try to do the procedure tomorrow.


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## jonas190 (Jun 11, 2011)

I also just thought of using some reversed clamps in between the cradle and housing to spread them apart and off the shaft. Of course that would depend on me finding some small enough at the store.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*my mistake*

Item no. 36 is a pointer on that saw. It's very similar to a sliding knob on the saws I own. Your saw apparently does not have a height lock control. So... it's either of 2 things: There is crud in the gear on the end of the shaft that is wedged into the threads and hidden from view ...or the shaft itself is frozen in place. In either case it's best/easiest to remove the carriage from the table and dismantle and clean everything out. 
You will have to realign the blade parallel to the miter slot, a PITA but if you stand the saw on it's back end you can adjust and measure at the same time. This is a critical measurement, but a tri-square resting against a marked tooth is a good technique.

Get the shaft freed up to start and if you have trouble aligning the blade we can help with that. :yes: bill


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## knotscott (Nov 8, 2007)

There's no lever like this on the front?


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## jonas190 (Jun 11, 2011)

knotscott said:


> There's no lever like this on the front?


That lever locks the blade tilt.
As for dismantling, that's the problem, I just can't get the two parts to separate. There is no crud on the gears whatsover. They turn, just very reluctantly. I have to apply a lot of strength.
I agree, in order to free up the motion I will have to get them apart to clean. That's what this post is about--how to manage that. I'm going to be out of town for a couple days so I think I'll take the arbor out of the housing, take the cradle off the trunnions, and put the entire housing/cradle combo in a solvent bath until I get back. Hopefully it will find it's way into the joint. Several days of heating with propane and spraying with PBB have been unsuccessful. The same with oven cleaner, although ideally that would be left on a lot longer in an airtight bag so it couldn't dry.

If anyone has suggestions for a bulk-size solvent other than kerosene, or a type of clamp I could use to spread the two apart physically, I'd be glad to hear them.


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## UndergroundWW (Jan 11, 2014)

I am having the same problem with my Craftsman table saw. Jonas, did you ever come up with a solution?

EDIT: I fixed it. I flipped the saw over and vacuumed all of the sawdust out. I worked the worm gear ("lift screw") with a crescent wrench while dousing the gears in WD-40. It slowly worked itself free. Cleaned the WD-40 off and coated the gears with Boeshield T9 and now everything works great!


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## I think ... I am (Nov 10, 2014)

Jonas190: Did you ever solve your problem? I had the same issue; after many frustrating attempts, I dismantle the entire saw and took the offending parts to a machine shop. They agreed to try, spending no more then one hour ($120). They succeeded! I put it back together yesterday, and raising/lowering the blade is now so easy that I did it a dozen times (OK, OK, eight times) just for the fun of it.

But in the process of looking for a solution, I also found that Sears still has one of the parts (the cradle (part # 62489)), and that the other part (the housing, arbor (part # 30420)) would have been available on eBay. It's been sold in the meantime.

I hope to hear from you.


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## Tman1 (Jan 14, 2013)

For anybody with this problem in the future, there is one solution that was not discussed. If you look at the troubleshooting section of the manual linked above, it mentions that having the bearing retainers too tight can cause it to be stiff. The manual tells how to adjust this on the bottom of page 34. This could also be handy if your adjustment is too loose.


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## emason61 (Dec 12, 2014)

*Craftsman 113 table saw arbor housing issue*

I'm rebuilding a Craftsman 113 table saw and also had a very difficult time removing the arbor housing from the cast base. I used Kano Aerokroil penetrant and could not get it to budge. I didn't make any progress until I used a large gear puller using very high torque on the gear puller center screw. After the housing was off the cast base, I cleaned up the shaft and bored housing hole and lubricated with Johnson's paste wax. The issue I'm having is the arbor housing does not easily go back on the casting base shaft. Tapping it on with a wooden hammer requires very hard hits and once it started to drop down onto the shaft just a little, the housing would not rotate by hand. I removed the housing and tried grease with the same results. The only thing I can think has happened is the top of the shaft mushroomed out to a slightly larger diameter from the pressure of the gear puller. Has anyone run into this? Any suggestions?


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## emason61 (Dec 12, 2014)

Borrowed a 3/4 honer from a local shop. Did the trick. Housing slides on and rotates freely.


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## JD1962 (Feb 19, 2019)

Currently having the same issue with mine. It was in my Father-in-laws damp basement for over 30 years. When it started binding up on him he just put the blade up high enough for all his cutting and left it there. I have taken everything apart except for removing the arbor from the cradle. I used a impact wrench on the screw lift to break it free and instead of the arbor turning on the shaft the shaft turned where it is pressed into the cradle. I spent 3 week soaking it with a penitent oil. and it still would not budge. Due to the unusual shape of the arbor I could not get any gear pullers to work. My next step today was lock it into a vice apply heat and use 2 pry bars to break it loose. I do not recommend that approach The cradle broke when the shaft is pressed into it. A couple more hours in the vice with heat, penetrating oil and pipe wrench;s I was able to get the broken piece off the shaft. After more heat and oil I got the shaft to move about 1/4 of a inch in the arbor. Mind you this is the part that should turn easily with the hand crank. I realized a shop press would push the pin out and called a friend who work in a large shop. He is going to punch out the pin tomorrow. I found a new cradle online for $80. There is no easy way to take this once they freeze up. The shop press would not have worked until I broke it. The unusual shape of the cradle and arbor prevents using one and many other tools designed for separating stuck parts. When I reinstall I plan on using a high quality synthetic grease or the dry graphite lubricant. Need to research that a bit first. But yearly maintenance on this part is definitely in order.


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## blevy009 (Jun 15, 2021)

jonas190 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I have two Craftsman table saws circa 1984-1985, model no. 113.298240, both suffering from the same problem. The Arbor Housing (part no. 30420), which controls the blade depth adjustment, is incredibly slow and difficult to turn. On one saw it has frozen completely. There is a shaft connecting the Arbor Housing to the Cradle (part no. 62489) on which the Arbor Housing is meant to rotate. I figured that both of these saws are old, lubricated with engine oil and full of saw dust, and probably just needed a good cleaning to free them up. Not so!
> 
> ...


I had exactly the same problem, just got harder and harder over the yrmears until it wouldn't move. I just pulled the lift gear off the shaft and found a hard sticky grease residue on the shaft and in the hole.There is no way to attach a simple gear puller, so I drilled and tapped 3 holes in arbor gear (8/32) and high grade machine screws to attach a gear pulling plate. 

I had thought it had rusted from the high humidity in my garage, but the deposits or coating was more of a film. Did some research and identified the Grease Hardening can be an issue over time and if temperatures get high. A fine wire brush cleaned the shaft up very well. Need to fine something to clean up the hole walls and reassemble. Think I might install zerk fittings and cut a small groove for grease flow and regular lubrication.


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