Stuck in the engine

I went up to the museum to put the cotter pins in the connecting rods. You use a tire iron in the flywheel to turn the crankshaft until a connecting rod is accesable thru the hand hole cover. It was a tough job reach through the hand holes and turn the nuts one way or the other to line up the cotter pin hole and the castle nut slot. I often had to use a hand mirror to see the allignment. I was laying on my stomach on the running boards of the engine, with my head close to the crankcase and my arms inside the crancase. Someone droping off news papers told Steve there was a guy stuck in the engine compartment back there. I got them in but I am still working on the air compressor rod.

I decided to use the flat tappets instead of the roller tappets because the roller tappets froze up so fast. When we put the tappets in their holes we found out that there was a misallignment between the cylinder castings and the crankcase. Hank machined the tappets to fit. The machined tappets went right in and the pushrods went on. I bought 5/8 inch studs, cleaned the threads in the heads with a tap and installed the 18 new studs. I disconnected the pipes to the sand dome in preparation to removing the hood.

April 11 2009

We made 2 brake linkage pins from 1 1/4 inch bar stock. I made a clock, and an armrest to replace the rough old 2 x 4 bolted to the window. My son Dave came up to help lift the engine blocks. New base gaskets were cut out. We lifted the blocks to the walkway beside the engine. The rod caps were removed and the nuts put on to keep the shims from falling in the crankcase. The pistons were pushed to the top of the cylinders and the crankshaft turned until one of the two journals was at TDC. It took 3 guys to lift the blocks and put them on the crankcase. Steve helped us with the first one and James helped with the other two. The pistons were tapped down until the rod was on the crankshaft and the nuts were put on. They are not wired yet.
Hank and I put the last of the brake linkage together with the 2 new linkage pins. We had to use crow bars and jacks as the brake shoe and heavy linkage arms wanted to go every way but line up. Hank and I put the rebuilt heads on. I decided to go with newer type of tappets. They would not fit in the crankcase. Hank will machine them. much more work is needed. Donations are needed for hoses, belts, batteries etc. The radiator needs removed and the bottom tank welded.

March 15 2009 update

Hank and I worked on the Whitcomb for 3 days in March. The weather was great, temperture in the high 50's. We assembled the brake cylinders with new cups and spring. We reconnected the air supply lines, rigging and brake shoes. Two connecting pins will need to be made from 1 1/4 inch bar stock. We mounted the air compressor cylinder on the crankcase. The cylinder was from the spare engine and the air supply piping was slightly different. We finished painting the last corner of the cab floor.

The Air Compressor cylinder

I looked over the two air compressor cylinders and their pistons. The air compressor cylinder is a separate 7th cylinder, water cooled, located between cylinder 3 and 4 on the crankshaft. The A.C. jug from the locomotive had frozen and split. The one from the spare engine looked OK. In one A.C. piston all the rings were stuck. I had to purchase 2 oil rings for the best piston.
As it turned out the big end of the A.C. rod would not go straight through the hole in the crankcase. With 2 of the bolts removed and the rod at an angle it fits into the crankcase. I made 4 brass shims and 1 steel shim for the connecting rod. After several trial fittings I got the right number of shims in place. I was able to insert the A.C. piston in its jug.

Putting the pistons in the blocks

I went up to the museum Dec. 29th and got to see the new 25 ton GE delivered the next morning. It was kind of a day that you know was too cold to be out for long but you cant leave because it was so interesting.
After checking the fit on the rods one last time I went in the freight house and put the piston pins in connecting the pistons and the connecting rods. I put each piston/rod in the vice and put the new rings on the pistons. I had made a ring compressor for 6 3/4 pistons,from sheet metal and used a large vice grip to compress the rings. I was able to get the pistons in the blocks. It felt good to get that done.

Fitting Rods to the Crankshaft

To fit the connecting rods to the crankshaft, I turn the bare crank over using a tire iron in the teeth of the ring gear. When a journal is just past TDC I take the nuts off the connecting rod and remove the rod cap making sure the insert bearings and shims do not fall out. I put the top half of the rod though the hole in the top of the crankcase and reach through the hand hole on the side of the crankcase and put the cap on the rod. I hold the rod cap on with one hand from the top and reach through the side hand hole and put the nuts on the con rod bolts. This is not fun and a strech since the side hand holes are down in the loco frame. I reach down through the side hole and tighten the rod nuts with a 1/2 inch ratchet wrench inside the crankcase. After torqueing the nuts if the rod is too tight I have to take it out and add a shim. If its too loose I remove a shim. Do that 2 or 3 times on each con rod until the rod turn freely with no other play. It took a day and a half to shim the rods the first time. I took the rods home and decided that a couple inserts were rough and that there were better ones. I swicthed out the rough shells. I spent another day sitting on the crankcase fitting the rods. I took them home again and noticed a few of the shells moved laterally when the caps were bolted in place. I didnt want any shells moving when we were assembling the engine or running it. I did some research and decided to mount them in place using high temperature bearing mount. I used Locktite 620. After mounting the inserts I spent another day checking all the rods in the crankcase. They had changed a little bit and I had to shim two rods.

Insert Bearings

I spent most of the fall of 2008 fitting the connecting rod bearings to the crankshaft. I coud not find new bearings from the major manufacturers, Clevite and Federal Mogul. I would like to have a new set of bearings (number 12 187). The ID is 3.5 inches and they are about 3 and 1/4 inches wide. I bought brass shim stock, 7 thousands of an inch thick and cut 30 shims. To make the bolt holes in the shim without tearing them up, I clamped the shim in between 2 halves of the connecting rod and drilled though the bolt holes in the rod.. The design of the bearings is different from the babbited rods that I have worked with. To fit these bearings correctly the insert shells would be fit to a 3.5 inch mock up journal. Then the rod cap shimmed to fit the journal. I collected all the inserts that I could find from the 2 engines. Four of five sets of shells were destoyed from overheating and when the Whitcomb engine siezed. I matched up the remaining bearing shells by striations in the inside and outside of the shells. After pushing the pistons out of the blocks I numbered the rods and pistons trying to keep the pistons in the same holes that they came out of. I put the bearings in the rods and number the shells to match the rods.