Kondia FV-1 Head disassembly

[Mayhem]

What do they say about taking one step forward and two steps back?

I finished off the motor clamp, so I can keep tension on the belt without using a G-clamp.  I oil blackened the parts but for some reason, the clamp body looks like crap in the picture.  It looks much better in normal light but probably warrants another cycle. 

   
   
   

I then spent the best part of two hours making minor adjustments to get the quill feed working.  I figured out that I could set the clutch easier by removing the feed trip bracket and manually depressing the overload clutch trip lever.  Once I thought I had it set correctly, I put the feed trip bracket back on and tried it out.  

It worked but kept tripping itself.  I decided that the spring that actuates the overload clutch trip lever was too strong.  So I shortened the spring by a couple of coils and tried it again.  This time the mechanism stayed engaged but the clutch was slipping.  I pulled the clutch out and put an eighth of a turn on the overload clutch locknut and put it all together and tested it again.  I engaged the trip lever and there was linear motion followed by a sound that resembled gears crunching and (potentially) spitting teeth 

So - from the last picture above to this all in the space of a couple of hours...

   
   

Initially I thought it may be the clutch slipping but removing it didn't resolve the issue.  My concern then was the feed worm, hence the (almost) complete tear down of the head.  I'm very pleased to say that the worm feed and associated gears are undamaged.  However, I haven't found the cause of the sound.  I need to remove feed drive gear cluster, which transmits drive to the forward/neutral/reverse gears that control the quill feed.  The cluster was very difficult to turn manually (i.e. with a screwdriver). I need to grab my slide hammer, which is in my other shop to remove this.

 I'm away on business all of next weekend, so I'm hoping to get to this the following week.  

Any thoughts???