Stuff you have fixed today

The_Yellow_Ardvark · Jul 19, 2024

Nice tidy pump and set up.

This may be an issue.

Plug it in and switch on and it runs up, then pops the breaker.

I thought tis was the issue, so I swooped it out. It showed that just plugging it in no, the trip in the house pops now.

Drying the windings out, in the oven for a few hours.
Then I put it into a vacuum bag to drawn in elec, Lacquer.

New gaskets, new Old stock brushes.

New cable, PAT and away we went.

A neww U bent hose is on the way.

The_Yellow_Ardvark · Jul 19, 2024

MattF said:
Have you painted the screws?

No, of course not. That is a trick of the sun.

mechman · Jul 20, 2024

sako243 said:
The JCB is finally back up and running after 18 months down.
View attachment 457576

What was wrong with it engine wise? :dontknow:

sako243 · Jul 20, 2024

mechman said:
What was wrong with it engine wise?

Basically it shat itself was the initial diagnosis.

Full diagnosis / story was that one afternoon (after having been used that morning) it struggled to turn over. The battery was a few years old and it's done a lot of stop / starting so thought it was a duff battery. Put it on the charger overnight and the following day was still struggling to turn over. Then just as I was going to give up it coughed and I kept going and eventually she fired up. A few seconds later I noticed some oil coming out of the exhaust stack so killed it.

Checked oil level a bit later and it was high so went to drain some out and found there was a bit of water / coolant in it. I ended up doing a full oil change. Tried again and still struggling to turn over but fired up again and then coolant and oil came out of the stack.

Decided to pull the head and that's when I discovered she'd been overheated at some point as the bores were scored. Head gasket looked okay so given state of bores (engine had 5400h on it when I got it about 5 years ago) decided to pull the engine.

I think what actually happened was the water pump O rings and gasket had failed because the second time I fired it up diagnosing things she'd dumped 5l or so of coolant into the sump in 5s so that quantity couldn't have gone through the head. Anyway a rebuild kit was supplied by @8ob which turned out to be the wrong kit (for a turbo engine which the only significant difference other than a turbo is the gudgeon pins are 1/8" bigger) but correct kit ordered and since the engine was out just did a full rebuild of the short block.

That was 18 months ago, I spent some time investigating sending it off before ending up doing it myself. I got busy with work so not a lot happened and since last Christmas I've been waiting for the conrods to come back from honing with a local machinist.

Given it's just used about our home it doesn't get a huge amount of use compared to a contractor machine but decided a full rebuild and it should hopefully outlast us.

sako243 · Jul 20, 2024

@mechman this was a Perkins 1004 AA build. They're a bit notorious for the timing cover rotting out (basically the aluminium timing cover corroding between the pump and the timing gears), I didn't have that I think because I caught it early so the water pump didn't have a chance to make it worse.

mechman · Jul 20, 2024

I have a Perkins 4.236 in my 3cx, seems a good motor (up to now) Cracking starter etc. Don't think I've come across 1004AA.

GRW · Jul 20, 2024

sako243 said:
@mechman this was a Perkins 1004 AA build. They're a bit notorious for the timing cover rotting out (basically the aluminium timing cover corroding between the pump and the timing gears), I didn't have that I think because I caught it early so the water pump didn't have a chance to make it worse.

I've seen several 1000/Phase Series 4 & 6 pot engines with failing head gaskets in standby gensets.
Really good engines but it seems they eat head gaskets if the coolant/rust inhibitor is neglected.
(The standby engines are hardly doing any hours, but the constant "black start" coolant heaters age the coolant as if it were in regular use. White calcified streaks doen the side of the block being a tell-tale symptom).

sako243 · Jul 20, 2024

mechman said:
I have a Perkins 4.236 in my 3cx, seems a good motor (up to now) Cracking starter etc. Don't think I've come across 1004AA.

I think the 1000 series basically the next generation following on from the 4.236 (mine's a 1995 2CX). I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with them but they don't like running without coolant for very long as @GRW says and without a decent antifreeze bits start going wrong on it. Run it as Perkins intended and they're a great little engine.

I ended up having to learn quite a lot about this engine as a consequence as there's quite a lot of information on the web about the 4.236 but not the 1000 series although they are very similar. The 100X refers to the number of cylinders 4 or 6. The build code AX means 1000 series / Phaser, where X can be pretty much anything from A-Z denotes the specific variant, basically A means naturally aspirated in this instance.

Then you have agricultural builds, industrial builds, automotive builds with different timing covers for different accessories, different sumps (whether they're structural or not) and I think also a different block for some agricultural variants where the bell housing is integrated as it's a structural member of the tractor. There's three different fuel pump set ups depending on application and crucially in my instance two different gudgeon pin sizes for turbo/non-turbo builds.

All basically the same but nothing the same kind of engine setup. I actually went to have a look at a complete running Phaser build locally and because it was a complete low hours one he wanted a fair price for it, about £800 I think but nothing was the same as the JCB engine so I felt it was a bit steep in my instance where basically I just wanted some conrods with bushes.

Edit: full rebuild manual is available here which is bloody handy.

mechman · Jul 20, 2024

sako243 said:
I think the 1000 series basically the next generation following on from the 4.236 (mine's a 1995 2CX). I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with them but they don't like running without coolant for very long as @GRW says and without a decent antifreeze bits start going wrong on it. Run it as Perkins intended and they're a great little engine.

I ended up having to learn quite a lot about this engine as a consequence as there's quite a lot of information on the web about the 4.236 but not the 1000 series although they are very similar. The 100X refers to the number of cylinders 4 or 6. The build code AX means 1000 series / Phaser, where X can be pretty much anything from A-Z denotes the specific variant, basically A means naturally aspirated in this instance.

Then you have agricultural builds, industrial builds, automotive builds with different timing covers for different accessories, different sumps (whether they're structural or not) and I think also a different block for some agricultural variants where the bell housing is integrated as it's a structural member of the tractor. There's three different fuel pump set ups depending on application and crucially in my instance two different gudgeon pin sizes for turbo/non-turbo builds.

All basically the same but nothing the same kind of engine setup. I actually went to have a look at a complete running Phaser build locally and because it was a complete low hours one he wanted a fair price for it, about £800 I think but nothing was the same as the JCB engine so I felt it was a bit steep in my instance where basically I just wanted some conrods with bushes.

Edit: full rebuild manual is available here which is bloody handy.

Rebore or liners?

sako243 · Jul 20, 2024

mechman said:
Rebore or liners?

Liners. A rebuild kit from parts4engines which includes pretty much everything needed is about £500. That's gaskets, new finished liners, new bearings, new little end bushes, new gudgeon pins, new pistons with new rings. Put a new waterpump on as it was only £60 too.

My only cock-up was changing the little end bushes which then needed honing which is what took forever. Could have probably not bothered but it was out so might as well do a proper job.

Erie Fred · Jul 22, 2024

Plasma cut some feet for the hinge.
Was one of the 50 standard shapes loaded into the control, no CAD needed.
took all of 5 minutes to load the dimensions, get some plate, cut them and bend.

optima21 · Jul 22, 2024

as the Steam Toy and Meccano show is at Leeds Industrial museum next weekend, (28/07/24)

Steam Toys & Meccano Show - Leeds Industrial Museum

Come along to see a range of miniature engines and classic Meccano on display in this fun family event.

museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk

I thought it was best that I get couple of toy steam engines running to take with me.

I've had a Mamod SE3 twin cylinder engine for a few months now and with the idea of converting it to having double acting cylinders so that it is self starting, and I'll get round to doing that in the next few years. The standard burner they come with is a meths tray burner, which I dont like, and I prefer using wick burners at they give a bit more control of the flame by adjusting the wick length. I had a spare 3 wick burner so it was taken apart as they are soft soldered together.

a longer tube was required to space the burners further apart and move the fuel reservoir away from the engine. it just needed to be resoldered together, but as this would get warm, I decided to use high temperature soft solder so got some multicore HPM soft solder off ebay. This has a melting pint of 300c and is over 93% lead so should have good wetability compared to lead free solders with a similar melting point

Pardon our interruption...

to fit the fuel reservoir on the base it was necessary to move the boiler forward 25mm, with hindsight it might have been easier to drill out the rivets that hold the engine to the base (I'll be doing that at a later date). but the base needed to be drilled to move the boiler forward.

the recess for the old burner needed to be extended to fit the modified 3 wick burner, and the piece to be welded in place was cut from some 1/2" square tubing.

this was then attacked with a tig welder

and how the modified burner fits

and the engine running, and you can just about see the 3 wicks burning, it doesnt look pretty but at least it runs.

and while I was at it, I thought I may as well make a new burner tray for a Mamod steam car so that it can run for longer on gel fuel as the fuel tablets have now been banned. the handle is the original one, and has been tack welded at the height of the top of the original. the height of the new tray still needs to be reduced by 3mm so that when it is filled with gel, the gel will stop burning just before the boiler runs out of water. the new tray is tig welded from steel

it may end up being rebuilt like this one day though

Dcal · Jul 23, 2024

Today I fixed our shower rail adjuster thingy.
It wouldn't tighten and was starting to annoy me.
It had been annoying the boss for a couple of years but these things take time.

I took it apart and found the plastic gripper bit was broken.

I looked for a replacement but couldn't find anything the same so looked for a complete adjuster and while they can be had for £5 the reviews weren't great and I'd have to spent a couple of hours getting it, so thought of have a go at a repair.
I first thought about making one out of stainless but I reckoned it would scratch the rail if I didn't have a plastic liner.
Since I already had a plastic liner I went with another approach.

I cut some thin stainless and bent it to shape then tack welded it to a stainless washer.

The washer was slightly big so I made a jig to hold it in the drill and used a flap disc to get it to size.

Then cut a slot to take the 12mm plastic bolt, sanded off the excess plastic and slid the plastic bolt into the stainless reinforcement.

Put it back together and it works a treat.

It didn't take that long to do (I spent longer thinking about it) but for some reason it was a very satisfying little repair to do.

Erie Fred · Jul 23, 2024

Working on a in-situ machining fixture.
"designing" on the fly, and using the standard shapes loaded into the machine, no CAD.

Made these burnouts from scraps laying around.

Dr.Al · Jul 23, 2024

Dcal said:
It had been annoying the boss for a couple of years but these things take time.

It just goes to show: if a man says he's going to do something, he'll do it. You don't have to nag him every single year until he does.

dobbslc · Jul 23, 2024

After much nagging I finally got started on the ensuite plumbing that required the shower pump to be turned off, I finished the pipework and turned the pump back on but nothing nada zilch.
The PCB had popped :mad:

Moral of the story is ....
Leave it alone, don't touch it, watch TV instead. :vsad:

brewdexta · Jul 23, 2024

The panel fit of the bonnet on the mule was appalling. It hinges forwards, after lifting the windscreen, the catches are on the inside.

The whole bonnet was about an inch forward of where it should be as it didn't meet the catches and it was proud of the other panels at the front

and it was about an inch high as well, slightly less on the offside.

There is no adjustment on the hinges, so took the hinge brackets off, they were complete bar stewards to get to the fixings, which were cross heads, not bolts. There are holes where the pivots need to be. You can see the old rusty pivots at the bottom, the galv washer is where they need to be.

So I welded the holes up and welded on a washer where the pivot point should be as the pivot point is raised. I forgot to take a photo of this. Here it is back together. Much better, I have no idea why the panel fit was so bad, no obvious accident damage, but the bonnet is a slightly different shade so it maybe a second hand bonnet, different year/model or whatever. The catches now meet ok too.