Cedge
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2007
- Messages
- 1,730
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After two days of scratching my watch and winding me arse, I've got the Elbow engine boxed into a corner and it appears that I'm only a few hours from having it ready to run.
The darned thinthrough approximately 270° and then it would lock tight as my first girlfriend's knees. I've had the thing apart untold times and tried different combinations of cylinder and piston positions. Nothing was obvious, but something was definitely not happy, regardless of where things were put.
Mental check list time.....
Pistons squared, not once but twice. Check.
Pistons shortened enough to prevent them srtiking the bearing surfaces. Check.
Cylinders honed with demel and polished with metal polish to cut friction...Double Check
Rear bridge straight and squared... Check
I finally came to the conclusion that one or more of the cylinder holes must have strayed during the process of drilling them. I gave in and broke out fresh metal and made a new set of cylinder drums. Amazing how quickly that went, but then I'm becoming an elbow drum expert after the previous two attempts...(grin)
I got the first new drum drilled and honed and then took it to the work bench for piston fitting. They fit beautifully.... Uh.... sorta. I had them in the drum and moved them around to point in one general direction and something looked decidedly strange. One of the piston ends looked as if it was giving me the one finger salute.
Now I've just finished drilling those holes and I took extreme pains to make sure they were perfectly on radial angle, square and I even drilled both drums from one piece of metal ( 5 holes 3 inches deep ) so that I could match the holes later during assembly. So I know the darned things are right. I also know I squared the pistons, not once but twice, so I'm beginning to wonder if the engine has a gremlin infestation.
I snatched up the piston and put it on my 123 block once again. Lo and behold, it was WAAAYYYY out of square. Somehow, even after two attempts, I managed to miss the same piston not once, but twice!! Talk about feeling gifted....LOL
Two small tweaks and the little guy assumed the proper position. I put the pistons back in the old drum and slid them home into the flywheel drum. That was when the feeling of relief hit. The engine not only turns freely by hand, but will almost turn both drums in sympathy.
Tomorrow's to do list includes finishing up the second new drum and trying to transfer the flywheel over to it. The new drums are a tad taller so that the pistons are maintained a little more cleanly. I should have it ready to run quite soon now.
The feeling of relief, when it turned freely, was almost as good as the "it runs" feeling
Steve
The darned thinthrough approximately 270° and then it would lock tight as my first girlfriend's knees. I've had the thing apart untold times and tried different combinations of cylinder and piston positions. Nothing was obvious, but something was definitely not happy, regardless of where things were put.
Mental check list time.....
Pistons squared, not once but twice. Check.
Pistons shortened enough to prevent them srtiking the bearing surfaces. Check.
Cylinders honed with demel and polished with metal polish to cut friction...Double Check
Rear bridge straight and squared... Check
I finally came to the conclusion that one or more of the cylinder holes must have strayed during the process of drilling them. I gave in and broke out fresh metal and made a new set of cylinder drums. Amazing how quickly that went, but then I'm becoming an elbow drum expert after the previous two attempts...(grin)
I got the first new drum drilled and honed and then took it to the work bench for piston fitting. They fit beautifully.... Uh.... sorta. I had them in the drum and moved them around to point in one general direction and something looked decidedly strange. One of the piston ends looked as if it was giving me the one finger salute.
Now I've just finished drilling those holes and I took extreme pains to make sure they were perfectly on radial angle, square and I even drilled both drums from one piece of metal ( 5 holes 3 inches deep ) so that I could match the holes later during assembly. So I know the darned things are right. I also know I squared the pistons, not once but twice, so I'm beginning to wonder if the engine has a gremlin infestation.
I snatched up the piston and put it on my 123 block once again. Lo and behold, it was WAAAYYYY out of square. Somehow, even after two attempts, I managed to miss the same piston not once, but twice!! Talk about feeling gifted....LOL
Two small tweaks and the little guy assumed the proper position. I put the pistons back in the old drum and slid them home into the flywheel drum. That was when the feeling of relief hit. The engine not only turns freely by hand, but will almost turn both drums in sympathy.
Tomorrow's to do list includes finishing up the second new drum and trying to transfer the flywheel over to it. The new drums are a tad taller so that the pistons are maintained a little more cleanly. I should have it ready to run quite soon now.
The feeling of relief, when it turned freely, was almost as good as the "it runs" feeling
Steve
