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.

Pictures from Dave at Shasta Cascade R. P. S.

All the copper oil lines were removed from the LeRoi sometime in the distant past. There were at least 6 fittings on the crankcase and I didnt know what they attached to. I knew there were a few Whitcombs in museums around the country but I didnt know which ones still had the LeRoi RX1S 6 cylinder engine in them. I put some pictures of our engine on the Yahoo group 'Rail critters and asked for information about the engine. Dave Jungkeit answered right away and voluteered to take pictures of the engine at the Shasta Cascade Rail Preservation Society in California. Dave sent pictures which were a great help to me. I uploaded them to my Picasa album 'Shasta Cascade'. To get there click on the picture in the slide show near the top of this page. Thanks Dave.

Crankshaft Journals

When we removed the front block and 2 stuck pistons, I looked inside the crankcase and saw a shiny surface. I thought 'Oh this is good' but it turns out that what I saw was the back side of the insert bearing. It was siezed and stuck to the crankshaft. The bearing side was black and motled. I worried about the main bearings but after all the stuck cylinders were removed the crankshaft turned. I used a 4.5 inch angle grinder with a wire wheel to clean up the hardened journal surfaces. Some journals were discolored but they cleaned up and look like they will work. Where the connecting rod bolted to the journal there are 2 small lines etched in each journal. I believe from acid in the oil. I felt it with my fingers and it felt rough. I used a ball grinding stone on a cordless drill and polished the rough spots. My friend Bob told me that he had sucessfully rebuilt John Deere tractors with etch lines in the journals.

New Brake parts

I got both brake cylinder pistons freed up. One of the return springs was broken into many pieces. I called Westinghouse Air Brake. Sadly it took 3 or 4 calls and return calls to find someone at WABTEC to research our brake piston cup and spring. Finally I got to Michelle in Chicago who found the part numbers for our 8 inch cylinder. The bad news was that there was a minimum order of 12 pieces at 60 dollars a piece. I called Bill at Pittsburgh Air brake. He pretty much fixed us up with 2 new piston cups and a spring. I made 4 each, eleven inch flange gaskets from a 12 x 24 sheets of neoprene from McMaster Carr company.

Brake cylinders

Hank went up to the museum with me and we took the brake cylinders apart. I did not know how they worked or if they would come apart, but there were unions on the air line pipe fittings and a row of bolts at each end so we took them apart. Both brke piston rods were rusted and stuck. A lot of water and rust came out of the cylinders. One side we had to put a wood 4x4 on the piston and hammer it out. We were able to get the ends off the cylinder and the pistons and push rods out from around the brake rigging. The cylinders were cleaned up with 4.5 angle grinder with a wire wheel and greased. The return springs springs inside the cylinders were broken. The options are to get new springs and rubber parts or whole new generic replacement cylinders. The cost of the new cylinders ranged from 800 to 1000 dollars. We plan to fill some of the pits in the cylinders with epoxy and get new cups and springs. The cups are 85 dollars and the springs 35 dollars. All will be packed in air brake grease.