Edison Home Model D Underside Crank attachment question

[holmes54]

I have been working on restoring this home model D and the first picture I have is before I took it apart to remove the rust etc. and there's that crank attached. I have been working on this on and off for years and I'm starting to put everything back together. As you can see in the second photo the crank piece came apart and I don't know how it's supposed to be attached together because I don't have a picture of it. Does anyone know how these two pieces attached? Were they glued? Were they kept together by another piece? Thanks!

[JeffR1]

I don't think that's part of the crank, but rather the system that keeps tension on the belt.
This assumes it has a belt and that those pieces even belong to your machine.

I think this is it here, or close to it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265566994427?h ... SwShlh4E8F

[JerryVan]

As Jeff says, it's not a crank. It's the belt tensioner. The brass wheel is meant to spin freely on its shaft. It rides against the belt to keep tension on it and to prevent slippage. The arm is supposed to have a spring at its hinge point that keeps the brass wheel pushing against the belt.

The axle that goes through the brass wheel is supposed to fit into the hole in the arm. Once in the hole, the end is supposed to be peened over, (like a rivet), to keep it tight in the hole. Before you try that, be sure that the wheel can spin on the axle. They're usually stuck...

Honestly, you'd be much better off buying the example that Jeff has provided the link to. Yours is kinda shot and it's missing the tension spring as well.