I'm overhauling a Nikon Labophot whose grease has turned very gummy. I almost have everything apart, but I'm stuck at removing the the coarse focus bearing, part 106 in the repair manual, page 15 of the pdf (page 22, according to the printed page numbers, due to missing pages). The manual says to immerse the assembly in alcohol (to dissolve the adhesive on the part, I assume). A few questions:
- Can that be right? The bearing is still in the pillar of the scope arm at this point. I'll need to dunk the whole bottom end of the arm in several inches of alcohol to get the bearing submerged. (Possible, but annoying!)
- Any idea if isopropyl alcohol will do the job? The manual says the adhesive is "#350". Not very informative.
- Alternatively, I could apply heat to soften the glue. But I don't know if that would actually work, and I'd hate to damage anything (though that seems unlikely; I can be pretty precise with the heat).
- How can I get torque on this part? It looks like the bearing is supposed to be taken off with a pin wrench. I'm assuming a fair amount of torque will be required to break the adhesive. But I'd rather not buy a tool I'll only use once. Also, the outside diameter is finely threaded for a mating part, so man-handling it with a wrench seems like a bad idea.
I don't really expect anyone to have direct experience with this exact situation/scope, but any advice from more experienced people would be appreciated.
Thanks!
-- Sam