The Engine - Part 3a

Kit 13 (Mostly) 

Kit 13 has a lot of parts, primarily for the linkages on the engine.  These would encompass the main slide valve section and the Hackworth section.  The documentation says "modified Hackworth" - Since I am unfamiliar with "un-modified Hackworth" I can not tell what the differences are.  Typically slide valve engines have a method of changing the timing of the valve and thus the order of steam being introduced into the cylinder behind the piston.  

As I said in Engine - Part 2,  there are a number of inter-relationships between the various sections.  As a matter of fact, I wish that STW would have moved a couple of things around in the sequence.  Most notable is the Reversing Linkage Arm and Shaft.  If these had been moved to Part1, the builder would not have to disassemble the main cranks, counterweights (webs) and related arms in order to fit them in. 

IT WAS A MAJOR PITA TO HAVE TO GO BACK AND FIT THEM.

Back in Part 1, I knew that the bushings would need fitted, so I retrieved them from Part 3.  It is the linkage arm that threw me,  I needed to grind down both sides to get it to fit on the shaft, and rotate easily.

The Reversing Arms fit into place on the shaft and complete this section of the assembly.  More to come after the cylinders,  Steam Chests, and Slide Valves are fitted.  

Cleaning up a mistake.

I started playing around with the cylinders and pistons in Part 2. I had realized that I had gotten the connecting rods facing the "wrong way out" which might have ramifications in the clearances when adding the linkages.  So I took the time to fix this.  The gudgeon pin had to be extracted and the rod flipped over. Now the correct side is facing out.  This took me a while to figure out the sequence needed to accomplish.  I justified the time by saying to  myself that I needed to know how to service everything, so learning the disassembly process will be time well spent.  -  Yeah - Right.  Next time pay attention to the drawings. 

As long as I had things apart, I went back to the cylinder mounting plates. In his blog, Grier had cautioned about the cylinders working loose.  So I took this to heart and add some additional punches to the flat-head screws.   I was going to add thread-locker - but Grier said the heat degraded what he had used.  So I hope the "mechanical" connection will suffice.  

By now I have assembled and disassembled the pistons, rods, cylinders, connecting rods, crossheads, guides and everything in between.  Hopefully for the last time!  

So that sets it all up for the valves, steam chests, and timing linkages.  

More to come. 

Thanks for reading, 

Poppapope

Denver, CO USA