Retrofitting a 1986 Maho MH400E

Trial photo Kind regardsChris 

Focus is a bit off but it's exactly the same as mine. If you disconnect at the elbow you will see what I mean about the tube going to the rotary joint being free to spin.
The way they are set up means you couldn't extent the Y quill for a special machining set up as the elbow would jamb on the rear of the Y slide.
Maybe you could shine a torch down the hole to see if there is anything else stopping the tube pulling out with the quill.
I haven't had a chance to figure out if there is an anti rotation slot and pin on the quill. You have to remove the one on the Z quill to remove that quill.
Cheers,
David

Big note here: Philips and Maho named the axes differently to the current standard, so your manual may have Z and Y swapped. On My machine with the Heidenhain controller the top slide is the Y axis. I redid my manual to show that, but I may have missed a few places.
Looks like we are on the right path. Here is the page out of my manual for it. It looks exactly as I have been saying.
The feather key is item 6. I'd pull it right out in case it catches just retracting it 6 mm in the instruction. That holds the quill from spinning and sets it's maximum travel. It looks like you will have to set the Y axis full forward to get to it. The drain screw is also visible under there.
I'm not sure about Item 2. Mine has a clamping bolt somewhere there. Take the round black plate (from a previous photo) off the side to look in.
I think you will find the quill assembly nearly identical to the vertical assembly.

David

Hi Chris,
I've opened mine and I can see how it works. I suspect the vertical and horizontal quills are identical enough that we could swap them.
The bolt with the sleeve is item 2 on the drawing. If you replaced the head of the bolt with a Kipps handle it would work like the vertical clamping handle. So that sleeve will push on the 2 arced pieces like in my photos on page 171, and clamp around the quill.
You have to remove the cover plug to get to the bolt head. Take out the 5mm grub screw and use a normal 5mm bolt to pull it out.Once loose, the quill should be free. Remember to disconnect the hydraulic elbow item 5 at the rear and the feather key underneath the slide item 6. I would think that the quill would slide without removing the front seal system item 4, but it may be full of dirt like mine.
If you look closely you can see the type of markings on the spline they talk about for reassembly. That's on a different spline though.
Looks pretty easy.
Good luck with it,
David

Hi Chris,
I think this completes this:
You can see another build like ours with the hand adjuster on the top slide and the Kipps handle on the quill clamping assembly
Cheers,
David

Hi David
Sorry I have been away for a few days
Thanks for the photo and the description of the Z hydraulic pipe work .Now I am back on the job. I am reluctant to dismantle the Z hydraulic spring loaded tool gripper as I simply don't know what I am doing and risk damage to the unit. I will have another look tomorrow. I can remove and adjust the gripper but I cant get to see the spring washers and they could be the problem. Further the Z tool changer worked before I renewed the spindle grease so it has to be something I have done.
Cheers and thanks for your interest
Chris McMullen