No Super Sucker needed

eric lavine wrote: do you have a pic of the plates? those are probably opened up too, but probably re-useable

Eric,
I'm planning on using the same plates. They don't show any signs of scoring just dirty/light rust in spots. I'll take the calipers to both the spline width on the shaft, the width of the spline on the plates and see how much slop I come up with. I'll shoot a picture and post when I get home today. I'm thinking I'll reverse the plates on assembly to use the side of the splines that wouldn't have any wear.

The spline is pressed off the shaft and will be hard surface welded and then off to the dividing head on the surface grinder. I'll get you a picture of it too when it's done.

Always nice to have a fully equiped tool room downstairs of my office!!!
I've got to get these "G" jobs done while we're still around!!!

perfectly good repair on the clutch hub Pete, done a few myself, if not they drag

How about next on the list, TOOL BOX I have an engine stand your welcome to use if you want. Hold off on the Chicago beers til I get back!

Pete you said you ordered a c style spring compressor but if you actually haven't done so yet I have one you can borrow.

eric lavine wrote: take that head right down to the grinder

Yes, after I find out where the water came from!!! Crack in the block or sunk is still the question?? I'll crack check the block as soon as I get the "C" style valve spring compressor I ordered and get the valves/cam/lifters out. My valve spring compressor that looks like a big tweezers won't work. The top of the springs are above the valve cover hole in the blocks side.

I'm getting the impression that the water was pumped through this engine. The crank mains are pressure feed (rods are splash) and they are the only journals that show pitting. The trans is also pressure feed via the hole through the center of the crank from the rear main. The trans was pretty rusty too. No gear/bushing wear (except see below) just light surface rust.

Here's the only trans part that has wear. It's the spline that the 4 clutch plates ride on. I'm thinking a reweld with hard surface filler and then set it up with the indexing head on the grinder for a regrind? The spline bores of the plates look pretty damn good! They must be harder than the splined shaft?

Well unlike the typical Paragon trans where it will pull right off the crank, this one won't! What a PITA. The center sun gear (inside the planet housing) is pressed onto the crank so the planetary housing must be split. Should be real fun to put back together too!



Only a two planet gear set! Must be the light duty version!



Light scoring of the babbit rod bearing.



All the pistons out and did a quick one minute hone on each cylinder. I feel 3 of the 4 cylinders can be just honed. The fourth where the water was sitting has some pitting that may not hone out.



No cracking per the Magnaflux test!!! On the head anyway! I've got to pull the valves and cam and then check the block. Looks like that Magnaflux dye system will work. Cool how the white developer pulls the red dye out.



If the block checks out without cracks, I'll move forward and check bearing clearances with the plastigauge. I'm not too thrilled about pouring new bearings myself so maybe I could live with existing I'll see!!. Ether this engine had some pretty low hours on it or it's been rebuilt. If it checks out of spec, Alan, I like your idea that the next step is to take it into the machine shop. There's a good possibility that bearings could be made rather than poured.

Eric, yup, You're correct that the crank is forged!

Pete, This where I'd load the crank up and drive to the machine shop, nothing like damaging a one of a kind item.

Just 2 firing positions 180 degrees out makes that stroke look like a lot more than 4". And am I just seeing 2 main caps? Nothing between the #2 & 3 cylinder? Interesting thread, keep the pictures coming.

I have been making some headway on the Flexifour but certainly not without problems. Basically the major issue is not being able to rotate anything to get to certain parts for disassembly. I now think this engine spent some time under water.

The crank pilot bearing is frozen on the inside of the trans planetary so I couldn't get the trans off.



Here I've pulled the main and rod caps to see if I could pull it off along with the crank. That didn't work! The power take off/hand crank shaft was the next problem. The shaft outputs forward through the block casting and aft through the trans casting preventing the two from comming apart. No room on the forward side to get a puller on the magneto coupling half and on the aft end is a pin for the hand crank. Two holes are provided in the casting to drive the pin out but remember nothing rotates and of course the pin is in the wrong position!!

Four bolt mains but take a look at the size of the rods. A Briggs 5HP's are bigger!!



I went after the magneto coupling with a brass drift and got it to the point where I could get a puller on it. The tail end of the trans came off so next is digging into the trans planetary and take a look at the pilot bearing.





Two pistons are loose and I'll work on the other two. I want to get the magnafux spray on the block and head to check for cracks befor moving to far forward.

Rod and main bearings do have some light scoring but depending on what the plastigauge says I'd be inclinded to leave them. Absolutely no scoring on cam lobes or lifters!

eric lavine wrote: Pete, if i remember correctly, you have a stand-by because of the 2000 crash.

Yes I do but the back up is up north were it's needed more. It ran for 7 hours between Christmas and New Years while Wisconsin Public Service traced the problem to a pad mounted transformer.

The planed outage yesterday that never happened was down here at the plant. BTW, we'd need a pretty large generator here for a back up. At peak production (not lately!) we run about 1.5 megs.

Pete, if i remember correctly, you have a stand-by because of the 2000 crash.

Gary S wrote: 8122pbrainard wrote: I guess they don't care about shutting down our power but do care about the high rise!! They will get more complaints at the call center Pete

Gary,
I'm back home now. They didn't show up today! I understand they had a major line go down that feeds Loyola University hospital. I can understand that they certainly would have priority but no phone call. I ended up having to get a hold of our account rep myself!! Sounds like some other company that hangs wires on poles!!

After looking at about 12 sites on the Magnaflux, I was finally able to find the procedure. First, the surface does need to be cleaned. The red dye is sprayed on first, allowed to dry somewhat and then wiped off. This red dye will penetrate any cracks. Then the white developer is sprayed on. It's a solvent and talc solution. It will draw out the red dye left in the crack and will show up as red.

Some more disassembly and I'll give it a try.

Pete I seem to remember reading about the magnaflux procedure fairly recently (last 3-4 months), but for the life of me I can't remember where. It had to be iether this forum or work???

I was going to power a hyd. pump for a large log splitter. I got a smaller log splitter, so the engine is up for a new home. Pictures don't do it justice thou.

Beleive me Gary , I'm just laughing. The only reason I have a new mower is because I threw a rod through the side of the block a few years ago on my old. Oil filter losened from vibration, lost all the oil and it blew, the trail of oil was about 20' long so I only had about 10 seconds to figure out there was a problem and react. These toys only hold about a quart and a half, they are pretty much disposable. I like the old cast iron.