I have a union 36 that I have been using since I got it with 30 year old warp. Having practiced and ready now to try my hand with some different warp, I un warped the loom. There are about five broken dowels on the sectional beam. One has been replaced with a nail, the others simply have remnants of various lengths. Needless to say, this was causing some problems with tension and is one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and change out now. I will also be changing to eyelet heddles as long as I'm in repair mode, since many of the heddles are bent and some are rusted. I will also be replacing the chain that hangs the shafts, as one was replaced at some point and they are not quite exactly the same, and the frames will not hang straight, no matter what. As you can see in the picture all of the dowels have the front face chipped or worn off where they strike the brake. Oh, also the last few inches of one of the beam sections has a crack in it, that doesn't go all the way through. It appers to have been there a long time. I don't know if this could be a problem or not.
Suggestions are welcomed for the best way to fix this, and any other suggestions while I have it down for servicing.