I got round at last this morning to a job I've been putting off for months! The engine of my JCB3CX has been over cooled - the temperature gauge never lifts much off the lower stop and I've suspected that the thermostat is jammed open, or maybe has been removed by a previous owner. I'd bought a replacement stat and gasket months ago but the cold weather, and the fact that the drain plug is in an awkward place has lead to procrastination !
Today was a little warmer, and I applied a trick shown to me by a plumber friend to easily drain fluids - crack open a joint and apply a Wet & Dry vac to collect the coolant. It worked a charm - virtually nothing spilt and level reduced to the stat flange.
The stat WAS installed and was closed so a puzzle why it was over cooling - anyway flange joints cleaned, new stat and gasket fitted, and I was able to re-use the coolant as I'd thoroughly cleaned the vac first.
Ran it at fast idle for a while - stat opened at about 85C and for the first time in my ownership the temperature gauge shows a sensible reading. A went very well - only drawback was one of the six flange hold down bolts had previously had it's flats rounded, but my Irwin bolt remover sorted it out in no time.
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How do you get the old one out and new one in place? Glue/resin??Another easy fix. How many people woukd chuck this away and buy new?
£1.49 spent at Toolstation, 5 minutes extracting the broken piece, job done!
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Ah - I was looking on my phone and couldn’t see the threadIt's screwed in. Grip the handle in a vice and with a very small cold chisel and ball pein hammer, tap the old piece tangentially to shift it. After one turn it wash free enough to unscrew by hand.
I was told way back when I first started driving and fixing cars, the fact a stat stayed shut or opened at temp in a saucepan on the stove meant not a lot compared to when it was installed in the engine. Pump pressure could open a weak one and lead to over cooling, despite it staying shut in the pan.This really has me puzzled, I tested the old thermostat in a pan of boiling water - it resolutely stayed SHUT. So why was the engine over cooled and not overheating
The over cooling was cured by installing a new thermostat so this defies logic - can anyone give me a logical explanation of what's happening here ?
Finally got my lathe to work in forward and reverse. In the process learned about starting windings, and 4 pole change over switches and DOL starters.
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I'd love 3 phase, but can't justify it, as I'm only a hobbyist. There's actually 3 phase crossing the corner of the workshop, so it's potentially viable, maybe someday...That's why I prefer working at 3ph motors, the wiring is so much easier, no start windings to worry about & to reverse just swap 2 phases.
how did you manage to not melt the paintI recently acquired a between-centres sine table at a very good price. The castings on both movable supports have in the past been broken and repaired. Although it does not affect operation, I considered the weld repair hideous and deserving of immediate repair. I'll probably repeat the same repair to the other casting that has been brazed.
Here are the before and after photos:
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The brazed repair wasn't mine. I did the other one with the two countersunk socket screws.how did you manage to not melt the paint