Spacer shaft alignment has two unique aspects.

The amount of alignment

correction at the motor can seem to be very large. And you are correcting two angles, one
for each coupling.

To achieve good, repeatable results, pre-alignment steps must be done. Inspect

the coupling for wear prior to alignment.

Minimize the soft foot under the motor before performing alignment. The
difference in a 15-min alignment and an eight-hour alignment is often correcting the soft
foot. Utilizing the soft foot function in laser alignment systems works well.
Many maintenance personnel have experience with aligning standard coupling
configurations, such as a motor to a pump, but some are less confident when theyre
asked to align cooling tower fans with spacer shafts.
Whats the big deal? Its almost always too hot, too cold, or too wet. Theres usually lots of
steps and ladder climbing involved, most of it carrying big wrenches, hammers, and pry
bars. Most cooling towers seem to be built with the assumption that no one will ever need
to get to the fan, gearbox, or shaft again, so there may not be a place to stand inside of
the cell. And its a long way down to the basin.
Cooling towers fans with spacer shafts can be aligned just as accurately and easily as
any other coupled machine, if you follow a few simple steps. The same principles apply to
most other machines using spacer or line shafts.
Several configurations of cooling tower fan drives exist. A spacer shaft doesnt need to be
treated like a separate machine because it isnt. It has no bearings or support
mechanisms of its own. It must go where the driver and driven shafts take it. If you do
happen to have a long spacer shaft with a center support bearing, the center support
bearing must be treated like an additional machine component, and aligned as a machine
train.
Spacer shaft alignment has two unique aspects. First, the amount of alignment correction
at the motor can seem to be very large. While the distances across the coupling faces
may be only a few inches, the faces of the couplings, and the shafts, form right angles. So
the angles extend for several feet back to the motor or movable machine. When the
distance between the driver and driven machines is several feet, the correction amounts
at the motor feet can be in. or more, but the offset and angularity at the couplings may
be within tolerance (Figure 1).

Second, you are correcting two angles, one for each coupling. There is really no offset, or
parallel correction. If you get all four coupling faces aligned, the spacer shaft will go along
(Figure 2).
Pre-alignment steps
As with any type of shaft alignment, to achieve good, repeatable results, pre-alignment
steps must be done.

Figur
e 1. In
this
cooli
ng
tower
space
r
shaft
confi
gurati
on,
the
dista
nce
from
the
motor
to the
gearb
ox is
more
than
12 ft.

Inspect the coupling for wear prior to alignment. There is no logic to

performing a precision alignment, only to have to replace the worn or
damaged components, and then align it again.
Make sure the surfaces onto which the motor and gearbox mount are
free of dirt, rust, paint, or other debris that could get under the feet of
these components. This will greatly simplify the alignment process,
and reduce errors due to debris. Taking two minutes to clean the junk
from underneath the motor feet is worth it.
Figure 2. When the
1 of 3 < 1 | 2 | 3 > Vie

angular misalignment
is reduced to near
zero degrees across
both coupling faces in
the vertical and
horizontal directions,
the driving and driven
shafts will be aligned.