How To Straighten A Bent Ramsey Fairlead?

The unit appears to be made of cast steel. The top part of the pass. side was pushed in and it twisted. Any ideas on how to get it back into shape without breaking it?

Heat?
C-clamps and shims and hope for the best?







Also, does anyone know how the side rollers are held in place? The top and bottom rollers are greasable and spin freely, but the side rollers are rusted solid. I don't want to just start beating on it if there's "a way". It would be nice to get this thing apart to clean it if possible.

 

Throw it out and make a new one. Yours will be better.

 

Awesome. I'll check that out tonight. Thank you.

 

Are you sure you want me to do that? The sooner I get this out of the shop, the sooner I get back on the 3A build.

 

I dont care what you work on as long as you post it up so I can do better work. Gotta have something to aspire to.

 

To straighten you need to set it on top a thick flat steel plate / angle / anvil or whatever.
Must be thick enough as it needs to withstand much heat without bending.

If the Ramsey casting is cast iron then chances of straightening are very slim unless you can simultaneously heat the complete casting to the yellow stage. Do not attempt the white hot molten stage.

If the Ramsey casting is cast steel you need only heat the effected areas and may gently use a couple "C" clamps when it's bright orange hot.
That's right bright orange to maybe yellow hot; not red and not white.

To predetermine cast iron vs cast steel you must perform a spark test.
Not sure if any spark testing information is available online or not.

 

Thanks oldtime. I'm familiar with the spark test. I'll check, but I really doubt cast iron would have bent this far without breaking, especially how the thin horizontal top brace is mangled, visible in pic #1.
The mount was bolted to 2 1/2" x 1/4" angle iron and completely twisted it without breaking the mounting tab off.

I'll have a run at it tonight if I get the rest of the mount finished.

 

Yes exactly true ...
The percentage of carbon in the casting is what's really in question here.
Bottom line is its a gamble.
I think I'd go for it.
You can always re-use the rollers on a home made frame if you break the casting.
It's also likely that the casting can be welded with 55% nickle rod if need be.

Also if I'm not mistaken the factory angle iron should be 3/8" thick not 1/4".
I'll check on that later....

 

I hit it with a wire wheel; there are definitely no pins. The underside appears to have a weld around the perimeter of the shaft.



I'm thinking this isn't worth repairing. The amount of time I'd have into cutting these rollers out, making new ones, straightening the frame without it breaking....
I'll tell him to hang onto it as a last resort, but to keep an eye out for a replacement.

Thanks for your input guys.

 

I might have a couple of fairleads if you are really set on using the original type fairlead.

 

Thanks Daryl. I'll pass it on, see what he wants to do. This is part of the frame project for my buddy in Redmond.

 

I looked at a friends Ramsey fairlead factory mounting.
Your right the stock angle iron is 2" x 2-1/2" and only 1/4" thick
His angle iron happens to be bent at the mounting holes.
Luckily his cast fairlead remains straight.

I had to grind the welds off my Koenig fairlead roller pins in order to do some repairs.
Grinding away both the top and bottom roller pin welds was the easy part of that repair.
The side rollers needed attention because they were cable gouged.
Filled the deeply gouged areas with hard facing rod then hand ground them back to round.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll let the determining factor be whether or not I can get these rollers to roll. I'll hit them with heat and a pipe wrench. If i can get them loose, I'll move forward. If not, we'll move on.

 

That's the one! But that price!

 

Its not really bad once you think about how much work will go into making one plus straightening the rollers and the cost of gas and material.

 

Gonna have to raise my prices.