My take on Spicer 3/4 ton blue dial repair

[57taskforce]

After finding one of my blue dials had a broken ear where the dial pin goes thru the dial, I decided to fix it rather than replace it. Hopefully someone can use this later on as I have not seen one fixed quite this way.
I’ve seen a few posts here and on other forums about this issue. Some people elect to just drill the holes in a different place on the dial which throws off the orientation of the lock and unlock position on the dial to the housing. This wasn’t my first choice. After some reading I saw where some people have tuned pvc electrical conduit on a lathe to sleeve the inside of the offending dial. This was a better solution to me other than I didn’t have any conduit handy that fit the measurements I needed.

After some digging around a I found a hardened steel wrist pin bushing from an old gas compressor at work. The measurements were close enough I could turn it down and trim it to fit. After turning I turned it down to a snug hand fit at the top of the dial I cut it to length to fit all the way to the bottom of the dial. I took a grinder and lightly ground on the outside of the bushing and scuffed the inside of the dial with emory cloth. After cleaning it all up I used 2 part epoxy to glue them together.

This is where I hit a bit of a snag. I hadn’t noticed that the inside of the dial actually tapers in just a little. When I painted everything up with epoxy and slid the bushing into the dial it stopped about 1/4” from the bottom. I chose not to force it much so as not to crack the dial. I was gonna try and cut it off but after drilling the holes in the bushing I’ve decided I don’t think the extra 1/4 on top will make a difference. So if anyone tries this turn you sleeve down so it’s snug at the bottom and not the top. Also if by chance anyone else decides to use hardened steel as a sleeve, a little trick for drilling holes in hardened steel is to use a masonry hammer drill bit in a press or even normal cordless drill. It will make quick work of the hardened steel. Here’s a few pictures. Hopefully this will help others down the road.

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And a few more

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And the finished product.