• Montgomery Ward Concrete Mixer Parts

I was given an old cement mixer a while back for helping a friend move. It was well beaten and needed a lot of work, I started by getting all the hardened cement out that completely covered the interior paddles. Believe me that until you have stuck your head inside the steel drum of a cement mixer and worked it with a demo hammer, you have not experienced all that life has to offer. Anyway, the pinion gear that drives the big ring gear that goes around the outside of the drum is worn to the point that the teeth are about to break off, and I'd like to replace it. However I can see no way to remove this gear until the drum is removed, and there I am stuck. How does this thing come off? It can't be that complicated but it baffles me.

There must be something in the drum bearing shaft that holds it on, because obviously the drum doesn't fall off when you tip it over to dump the cement. The mixer is small yellow utility mixer, Montgomery Ward label on the side. It's about a 3-1/2 cu. Capacity drum.

1/2 hp electric motor for power. It looks exactly like a Gilson 59015C, for which I can find a manual but no clue as to how to take off the drum. Sears still sells the parts for these, apparently millions of them were sold. I'm lucky to have this thing and would like to keep it going since my domestic manager has scheduled some concrete projects around the house, and there's no way I'll buy a new one.

Any help or hints are greatly appreciated. Looking at pictures of the GIilson, it seems to me that the ring gear would come off towards the front if you simply removed the four bolts holding it. And of course there's the exploded parts diagram here: Close as I can read the diagram, there's a set screw that goes in the side of the shaft bearing and likely engages a circular slot in the shaft. Scrape the crud off that shaft bearing and see if you can't find a set screw. (Getting it out is up to you, but I'd suggest a hammer-driven impact driver as the first try.).

There might be more than one set screw. In fact, it would make sense for there to be two or three. Look a little more closely.

Montgomery Ward Concrete Mixer Parts

And more than once I've run into a set screw that topped another set screw, or a pin. Make sure there's not something still in the hole that you took the set screw out of. But after running in that 'bearing' for a few decades, it wouldn't be surprising if there were a groove worn in it. You may have to 'persuade' the thing a bit. (From what I can see from here it looks like you could put a punch on the end of the shaft and attempt to drive it out.).