Well now lads, it has been far too long since I posted about The Smitty. I have to openly admit that I for some reason or another had lost interest in it. Perhaps it was the fact that I was having so much trouble with conjuring up a suitable method of directional change in the rather limited confines underneath the cylinder platform. I really can't say. Anyway after resorting to quit a bit of stumbling scratch.gif and mumbling :redface2: I had retired the whole thing to the top shelf on the wall :hDe:. I began to feel guilty about that as it sat there looking lonesome and forlorn. It was even attempting to attract my attention, much as a sailor of old would get drawn to the rocky shoals by the songs of the sirens. Finally, I had to cover in up, lest I succumb to its alluring presence. That seemed to help but the spectre 8) remained and it wasn't until I received an email from a fellow member that said rather politely to give it another go stickpoke that I began to ponder anew how I could finish the job that was started so many months ago. Before i drew the curtain and abandoned the project, I had turned up a very nice grooved pulley from an old brake caliper piston that I had in the drawer and had made a nice tapered hub for it that I soldered in place Thm:. This piece, I placed on the business end of the crankshaft and took comfort in knowing that the engine could now transfer power to whatever device I deemed suitable. When the time came to recover from my hiatus I retrieved the engine from its high perch and placed it upon the work table and quickly found that I could not remove the pulley! It wouldn't budge one single iota
. What had happened was the liquid flux I used to solder the pulley hub and rim together and taken up residence inside the bore and had begun to become rather intimate with the shaft, to the early stages of corrosion and had seized the pieces tightly. In my efforts with a gear puller to extricate the offending pieces from each other, it was then made apparent to me that the soldered joint of the shaft and the crank web was not up to the task and one side failed. th_bs I attempted to make it right but my efforts were for naught as no matter how hard I tried there was a tiny, perceivable wobble at the end of the shaft. Not wanting to have the thing look like some wheel on a clown car at the circus, the best solution to the problem was to install a brand new shaft. th_confused0052 I found that the solder I had applied did not stick real well onto the original shaft and in my own defense must add that I don't think that I allowed enough clearance for the solder to wick properly
oh: and now after going through the motions of undoing the joints, cleaning them up and making certain there was space for the solder to flow properly, I have what appears before you now. Whew! I just need to saw out the central portion of the new shaft and have begun the agonizing process of hacking together some sort of mechanism to allow the valve plate to be moved forwards and backwards without binding. I know what I want to do but the columns are being uncooperative and are in the way, at least for now :toilet: Time will tell. Thanks Paul.
BC1
Jim
