Bolens Diablo Rouge and Hus Ski Discussion Forums

Hi all,

This week's project was to rebuild some gearboxes for the fall restorations. They feature all new bearings and seals along with covers that have been powder painted. Gearbox rebuilds are something I like to do in numbers as it really saves time in setting up the press or cleaning the parts and such. They turned out great.
Here is a little interesting note about the 500 gearbox and another example where Bolens was engineering "on the fly" in 1967. The first gearboxes for the 500 only had 8 bolts holding the covers on. Sometime during the production year, they must have realized a few more bolts help hold the oil in. Therefore, you see the updated gearbox with 11 bolts.
One more thing about the 500 gearbox is it has no upper hole in the casing to add oil. If you have ever tried to add oil into the hole on the side cover, you know that is a poor design. Therefore, I add a hole in the top of the case and plug it just like the 502/3 gearboxes.
Let the good times roll on!