Fairbury 7aa

[goransons]

Hello!

I'm new on here, but not so new to windmills. About 10 years ago we put up an 8' Fairbury 7aa on a 30 foot tower we rescued from a site being redeveloped in Salem, Oregon.

It's been up until about a month ago. We had a huge wind storm that caused other damage, and one way or another we ended up with bolts out of the spokes and a main shaft with lots of play in it.

I work on many things, but gearboxes isn't one of the skill sets or tool sets I have, so I did a fair amount of research and found a gentleman a few hours from us that has rebuilt several dozen windmills, has 6 on his property and 2 he's finishing rebuilding, but he hadn't worked on a Fairbury before.

He's pulled the big (bull?) gears and has the unit out of the case, but has been looking at the best ways to take apart the main shaft and the small gears.

The rear bearing race casting/bracket (or whatever you'd call it) has a piece missing on about 1/4" of the race. I did read part of post where someone mentioned rather than trying to press out the gears and get the shaft out it was better to torch it out and make a new one. We do need to try to track down a donor rear retainer for the race if possible. He does have the tools to make new shafts and has, so that's not the end of the world. We need to find a set of small gears if possible, ours are quite worn. The rear main bearing was essentially gone.

Are we on the right track? Any suggestions, warnings, good advice from those that have done a Fairbury before?

Thank you in advance!

Scott

[CTXmiller]

Scott,

Welcome to the forum.

Someone should be able to provide advice and or consider reaching out to Dan Benjamin for advice/parts. He goes under Windmillsrus on this forum. You can send him a private message.

[PaulV]

Welcome to the forum Scott. I've never worked on a Fairbury, but others on here have and hopefully will chime in with guidance. There is some Fairbury material in the forum library. And as mentioned by CTXmiller, Dan Benjamin likely had the parts you may need.

Glad your here!

[windybob]

Even though I have several Fairburys, I have not yet had one apart or restored one. Not much help from me. Sorry.

[CTXmiller]

Scott,

I’m like Windy...I’ve handled a 7AA, but never restored a 7AA as the Fairbury 7AA I helped erect was in good shape.

[goransons]

Thanks for the replies. I did reach out to Dan by private message but haven't heard back yet. I appreciate it!

[hedgerow]

goransons Welcome to the forum. I am not much help with the Fairbury. I have never been around any.

[Gregg]

Goransons if you can post pictures of what you need I will look to see what I have.
Gregg