It's me, Uncle Albert, blowing cobwebs away from the pages of the previous jottings
Aaahh, now where was I ?
That's it, poor Little Walt had been down to surgery in 'The Old Sidevalve Bar' hospital and things didn't look good......mind you he is an old codger of 88 years so I guess a bit rough around the edges is ok...
However.......
Remember the welded conrod ? the chiseled crankpin nut ? and worse still the other crankpin nut that had been welded ? How could you forget ? I couldn't
I've been on holiday this week and what better way to spend 2 days of a holiday than fighting a reluctant vintage crankshaft..?
Little Walt has 2 gears ! Drive is direct from the crankshaft to the gearbox. From each side. Choose which side is driving by way of the selector and Bob's your uncle (no Albert is) high or low speed. Hey, that's pretty impressive for 1925 technology in my books.
I wanted the gear off the crank so I could access it's condition before writing an full engineering repair list.
Bearing in mind the parts are irreplaceable forethought before action would be a good idea and delicacy during Modus Operandi would help too......Can I do that? I'll try.....
Blimey, that there gear is stuck like a stuck gear in a gear sticking competition.....Gentle prising....Nope still stuck.......firm prising......nope........bearing puller........nope......
3 hours later under microscopic inspection I find some previous 'caring owner' had welded the gear to the shaft......Chuffin hell !
File.......file.......inspect.......file....file......inspect. I was looking for that tell tale sign of a crack proving that the weld had broken through.....but, I was filing into the shoulder of my precious. valuable irreplaceable gear...
A catch 22 situation....stress levels rising...
Note how some muppet has badly damaged the end of the crankshaft....Well peened in...
IT WASN'T ME !!!!!!
As soon as I saw I had filed through the weld I fitted the bearing pulley and tightened....and tightened more...
nope, no joy.
Big Bertha (The Old Sidevalve Bar residential blowlamp) ! Get some heat on it.......
Blimey, now things are hotting up. Just at the point of near hopelessness a 'crack' was hear across the land...The gear had shifted..
But still wouldn't pull with the bearing removing tool...
Soak in oil, Heat, crack, tighten, soak in oil, heat, crack, tighten. That's how it went until the gear got stuck again.....half way off...half way on...teasing, frustrating, No! Damn annoying more like.
Time to forget delicate....Tougher action needed, nothing can survive my Big Bearing Pullers! .
Noooooo not the big bearing pullers
Happiness is a loose gear and a steaming hot crankshaft..........
Inspection revealed that the gear was on a taper, why it's sticking on the crank during removal has yet to be determined, and why it was welded on by previous owner is still a mystery too.....
More to follow, stay tuned.
Albert over and out.
No comments:
Post a Comment