Universal Lightning Head Spindles

Not the same machine... but I had poppet valve problems until I put a drier on my air supply.

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we service all of our lightning spindles once a year,

Take the spinldes off. loosen the screw by the nylon cap and slide the locking pin out.

run the spindle shaft, the nylon cap and pin assembly , and spring thrue a ultrasonic cleaner with 99% iso, for about 15-30 seconds to dissolve all the grease.

Rub clean with lint free all shafts, clean the shaft holes and spindle shaft tube with pipe cleaners and 99%

Dry it all and reassemble NO GREASE.

When installing the spindles every other spindle gets 4 dots about 3 to 5 mm wide on the spindle cap with the correct white grease. Also a small film of grease around the rubber oring.

We re grease same amount every 3 months ish first cleaning old grease off by running lint free cloths around the cam by wedging them in the spindle caps.(turn by hand).

about once every 3 months we will have a spindle go down with 1 problem or another.

We order spare valves from universal , there shape tells me they are proprietary.

We have 150 lightning spindles and run 7 to 10 hours a day.

We number and color code by head all spindles, and try to put them back in the same spot, for no particular reason.

We generally have 1 or 2 people removing/replacing spindles, and another 2 people cleaning them. We usually do this as our annual long maintenance on the week before thanksgiving, This year we did it in the summer due to a slow down. We also do the Z assemblys at the same time as well as checking all electrical chassis for excessive dust. I will pull and strip to the frame any electrical chassis that appears dirty. All fans that get cleaned will have there blades scrubbed with 99% to remove all possible residue. This prevents dirt from re accumulating faster than before.

We also ultrasonic clean our nozzles using 99% Iso for about 5 to 10 seconds, and then tap the nozzles on the table and then blow them off (via 7 gang nozzle holders).

UIC has a ridiculous procedural for this involving motorcycle cleaner, a jar in the ultrasonic cleaner and hours of soaking. There thought is that the 99% iso will eat up the rubber tip, our thought is if you actually left it in the 99% ISO for hours it would :p 5 seconds is sufficient and dose not cause a problem.

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