Southern States EV2, rebuilt to outlast the original.
The EV2 is the most widely installed gang-operated air-break switch in the Southeast, and its bearing is the failure we see most. We rebuild it with a 316 stainless shaft, a machined brass lock nut, Viton O-ring seals, and sealed stainless bearings, all machined in our Palm Harbor shop. Ship us the bearing, ship us the switch, or have our field crew pull it and reinstall it. We do not sell new switches. We renew the one you have.
One switch, half the substations in Florida.
The Southern States EV2 is a rotating air-break disconnect covering roughly 15 kV through 230 kV, in vertical and horizontal mount, single and three phase. It has been the default distribution and sub-transmission GOAB across the southeastern United States for decades, which is exactly why so many are now reaching the age where the bearing gives out.
The switch does its job so reliably for so long that the bearing gets no attention until it stiffens, binds, and locks. By then, removing it takes a 45-ton press and a new shaft. Caught early, it is a scheduled shop repair. Caught during an emergency switching operation, it is an outage and a safety event.
The good news is that the EV2 was built to be serviced. The bearing, the contacts, the linkage arm, and the gear operator are all discrete subassemblies, and every one of them can be rebuilt or replaced. On most bearings we receive, the cast steel housing is the single component that comes back serviceable, and everything inside it is renewed.
We machine the replacement parts ourselves, including the obsolete ones. A part the OEM no longer stocks does not stop the job.
A corrosion problem, not a lubrication problem.
Three mechanisms act at once, and coastal salt humidity feeds all three. Grease does not fix any of them, because grease is not a seal and the joint keeps getting wet. The rebuild works because it removes the water and the parts that jam, not because it moves the metals closer on the galvanic series.
The oil-impregnated felt gasket loses its oil charge over the first decade. Dry felt is hygroscopic, so it stops sealing and starts drawing moisture in, holding it against the bearing and shaft. The stainless shim over it looks like a seal long after the real seal has quit.
A small aluminum nut against a large steel shaft is a modest galvanic couple, about two tenths of a volt, but the area ratio concentrates the attack and the wet thread crevice never dries. Aluminum corrosion product occupies several times the metal it replaces, packing the threads until the nut is locked by oxidation.
The stock bearing has stainless races and balls but a carbon-steel cage. Water reaches it and the cage rusts and binds the rolling elements. Judge the bearing by the balls and races alone and you miss it, because those still look fine while the cage behind them has failed.
Full teardown detail, field signs, and photographs are in the deep-dive: EV2 bearing seizure, causes and field signs →
We attack the water, then the metals that jam.
Galvanic corrosion needs three things at once: two dissimilar metals, an electrical path between them, and a continuous electrolyte bridging both. In a threaded assembly the metals are unavoidable. The electrolyte is not. Two Viton O-rings, above and below the bearing housing, keep water out of the thread crevice, and sealed stainless bearings keep it out of the rolling elements. A cell with no continuous electrolyte does not run, whatever the potential difference.
Then we change the part that actually jams. A machined brass lock nut on a 316 stainless shaft still forms a couple, but brass corrodes slowly and its corrosion product does not expand and lock the threads the way aluminum hydroxide does. Dry joint, slow metal, no jamming product. That is why the rebuilt assembly comes apart with a hand wrench in twenty years and the original comes out under a press.
Replaces the mild steel shaft that rusts and sheds abrasive particles onto the bearing below.
Replaces the aluminum nut. No expanding oxide, stays serviceable with hand tools at the next visit.
Replace the felt gasket. Viton does not absorb water and has no oil charge to deplete.
No ferrous cage left inside to corrode. The enhanced upgrade goes fully stainless.
Standard rebuild, or enhanced for the coast.
316 stainless shaft, sealed bearings dimensionally equivalent to the originals, machined brass lock nut, and two Viton O-rings, on the reused cast steel housing. Eliminates all three seizure mechanisms.
Adds fully stainless bearings, a machined rain shield press-fit below the housing to shed water off the shaft, a Mobil XHP222 grease fill, and a zerk fitting so the bearing can be greased in the field without disassembly.
When the insulators, contacts, or linkage need work too. Full shop teardown, the bearing upgrade above, contact reconditioning, alignment, function test, and documentation, returned ready to install.
Bearing, linkage, operator, contacts, obsolete parts.
The pivot bores and ball joint fail the same way the bearing does: steel in aluminum, outdoors, for decades. We reuse the casting, press in brass bushings, fit a stainless shaft, and replace the hardware that seizes.
A worn or seized gear operator gets replaced on site with our patented UGOR, so the switch and the thing that drives it are handled together, not one at a time.
The EV2 alongside every other GOAB family, all voltage classes, vertical and horizontal. Teardown, upgrade, test, return.
An EV2 part the OEM no longer stocks is not the end of the switch. We machine it from a sample, a print, or a model number in Palm Harbor.
Florida and Southeast coverage. We pull the switch, rebuild it in the shop, and reinstall it as one scope with one point of accountability.
EV-family jobs off the bench.
A seized EV2 bearing torn down, the failure mechanisms documented, and the assembly rebuilt with the stainless-and-Viton upgrade.
Same casting, different hardware. Brass bushings and a stainless shaft turn a seized steel-in-aluminum arm back into one you can move with a wrench.
A sheared operating shaft on the EV2's predecessor, reverse-engineered and machined from scratch when no replacement was available.
Background reading.
Southern States EV2 questions.
Can a Southern States EV2 switch be rebuilt instead of replaced?
Yes. The EV2 is built to be serviced. The wear items are the operating shaft bearing, the switch contacts, the linkage, and the gear operator, and every one of them is rebuildable or replaceable. On most units the cast steel bearing housing is reused and everything inside it is renewed. A switch that has seized, corroded, or arced is a rebuild candidate, not scrap.
Why do EV2 bearings seize in Florida?
Three things act together, and coastal salt humidity drives all of them. The oil-impregnated felt seal dries out and then wicks moisture against the bearing. An aluminum lock nut corrodes against the steel shaft, and the aluminum corrosion product expands and packs the threads until the nut is welded in place. And the carbon-steel cage inside the otherwise stainless bearing rusts and binds the rolling elements. The result is a switch that gets stiff, then will not complete its travel.
What does Southern Switch change in the rebuild?
The rebuild removes the water and the parts that jam. A 316 stainless shaft replaces the mild steel one, a machined brass lock nut replaces the aluminum, two Viton O-rings replace the felt seal, and sealed stainless bearings replace the open steel-caged units. The Viton seals keep the electrolyte out of the joint so galvanic attack has nothing to run on, and brass does not throw off the expanding corrosion product that locks an aluminum nut onto a steel shaft. The enhanced upgrade adds a machined rain shield and a zerk fitting for field greasing.
Do you carry EV2 parts, or is it custom each time?
We machine EV2 replacement parts in-house in Palm Harbor: stainless shafts, brass lock nuts, rain shields, and the full upgraded bearing assembly. Where an EV2 part is obsolete or the OEM no longer stocks it, we reverse-engineer it from a sample, a drawing, or a model number and machine it to specification. Send a model number and we respond within one business day with availability and lead time.
Can you remove and reinstall the switch, or do I ship you the bearing?
Either way. Ship us the bearing or the switch and we return it rebuilt, tested, and documented. Or our field crews across Florida and the Southeast remove the switch, we rebuild it in the shop, and the same crew reinstalls it as one scope. For gear operators worn or seized alongside the switch, our UGOR program replaces them on site.
We respond within one business day with a scope, a price, and a lead time. Photos of the bearing, the shaft, and the operator help us scope it accurately. A stiff bearing caught now is a shop repair, not an outage.