Rotary hammer problem - tools no longer lock

I was using my fairly elderly low-end Ferm rotary hammer to do some heavy-duty chiseling and the tool fell out. When I tried to replace it, I discovered that the rubber sleeve would no longer pull back.

Removing the sleeve and the small additional grommet-type thing that sits in front of it didn't leave me any wiser: the shaft of the chuck still moves in and out, but even at its extreme inward position the tool doesn't lock.

Looking into the chuck I can see the lengthways raised strips which guide the tool in, but no visible locking mechanism - which I've discovered from an online search should be a ball bearing.

Does this mean that the entire chuck has to be replaced? Another quick search hasn't thrown up a source, but even if it had I suspect that it might be almost as expensive, and a great deal easier, simply to replace the whole thing. Am I right? Comparable budget models seem to be around for £50 or so.

Many thanks.

Reply to
Bert Coules
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"... it might be almost as *cheap*..." I meant, of course. Apologies.

Reply to
Bert Coules

On my Makita you could just swap the ball bearing.

Reply to
ARW

Thanks for the thought. I did wonder about that, but I think there's more amiss: previously, the outer sleeve was held out by some sort of spring mechanism and it took some pressure to push it and (presumably) part of the chuck down so the tool was fully home before I twisted it: now there doesn't seem to be any resistance at all, nor anything which normally holds the sleeve in its outermost position.

Reply to
Bert Coules

This of any help?

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Reply to
Richard

Thanks for that. I did look around for a source for a replacement chuck but didn't find anything: I think the model I have is just too old (and I see that Screwfix don't market a Ferm range any more). But it's an interesting video.

Bert

Reply to
Bert Coules

You normally need to grease these things with moly (or perhaps graphite) grease. Both of these are notorious for having the oil escape, leaving a packed residue of solid lubricant that could well gum up the internal latch mechanism. I would spray liberally with WD40 or soak it in plus gas or any of the other popular remedies (diesel, automatic transmission fluid half and half with acetone, etc etc). And "work" it a few times and then put it back to soak.

Reply to
newshound

I could have added, I have a meeting this afternoon with a man who has a similar problem at his nuclear power station.

Reply to
newshound

He needs to soak a nuclear power plant in WD-40 and "work" it a few times to get it going?

This should be mentioned in the FAQ, y'know.

Thomas Prufer

Reply to
Thomas Prufer

we would but there's a separate newsgroup for it, news:free.uk.diy.nuclear-device

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I suppose that would get us "free archiving" by someone other than HoH and Google ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

I'll try that, thanks.

Reply to
Bert Coules

The tools won't stay in?

Reply to
Bert Coules

I managed to subscribe to that NG and request the latest 300 postings. I got about 150 that went back to 2003, all mostly rather weird spam 800 line postings. The latest one was 2017, not exactly a 'busy' NG for the past 5 years (one or two postings a year). It was rather more busy prior to that, meaning 3 to 12 posts a year! :-)

Curiosity satisfied, I unsubscribed, I've got enough moribund groups in my subscribed list with css, nsr, ucol and uch as it is to bother with an even more moribund one thank you very much. :-)

Reply to
Johnny B Good

I assumed it was fictitious, it's not on NIN's list of ~25,000 groups.

Reply to
Andy Burns

Probably one that was auto-created by a posting to a dodgy server that does that sort of thing ("subscribe to our great service - we carry three trillion groups") and maybe propagated to others that aren't very well run. NIN seems to be well run.

Reply to
Rob Morley

It used to have some on-topic activity. And some have done it or come close, eg david hahn.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

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