Stuff you have fixed today

[Erie Fred]

Yesterday morning I drilled and bent some flat bars for a friend, making a 3-point tow adapter (will apply a 2" receiver hitch
in the center on the bottom cross bar.)
I burned out the outer pin supports for the 2x3 box tubing for him last week,
he wanted to use those "3-point hitch pin bolts" but only using 1/4" thick plate with them.
I don't like them much at all with the cantilevered loading, so this is my method with 2 plates, and the arm in between.

 

[Robotstar5]

Now that's ^^^ a proper electrical service panel.

One thing I don't like about this make of panel is the MCB supply terminals are always live/hot while the panel is on

I prefer the "Isobar" type panels where each terminal has an isolating switch

An example above is the 3 phase MCB's bottom left, the bottom one is isolated while the one above has the brown, black & grey sliders outboard to energise the MCB, so providing the sliders are inboard, non of the terminals are live/hot, much safer in my opinion.

 

[dobbslc]

We also use the Schneider panels on site, they take an awful lot of abuse.

 

[Robotstar5]

We also use the Schneider panels on site, they take an awful lot of abuse.

They were Merlin Gerin when I started another brand bought out by Group Schneider.

 

[dobbslc]

Same here!
I don't like the newest panels where all the sliders are black, it makes counting down to the right MCB a PITA!

 

[ajlelectronics]

Breathing air filter pack to teplace the Norgren. Took some cobbling with parts I had in my bins. But it is solid and airtight anyway.

 

[sako243]

The JCB is finally back up and running after 18 months down.

 

[Bki26]

One boiler fixed, couple switches needed replacing and thermal camera made it a piece of cake working out what bits were stuck open.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This was a total Pig to do anything too.
One they were in a terrible state.
Then a lot of the images got deleted.

Floor board clamps.

Some of the damage, rust and wear.

Shows the amount of heat pumped into the metal to get them apart.

In paint, well first set of paint.

 

[MattF]

Have you painted the screws?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Nice tidy pump and set up.

This may be an issue.

Plug it in and switch on and it runs up, then pops the breaker.

I thought tis was the issue, so I swooped it out. It showed that just plugging it in no, the trip in the house pops now.

Drying the windings out, in the oven for a few hours.
Then I put it into a vacuum bag to drawn in elec, Lacquer.

New gaskets, new Old stock brushes.

New cable, PAT and away we went.


A neww U bent hose is on the way.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Have you painted the screws?

No, of course not. That is a trick of the sun.

 

[mechman]

The JCB is finally back up and running after 18 months down.
View attachment 457576

What was wrong with it engine wise?

 

[sako243]

What was wrong with it engine wise?

Basically it shat itself was the initial diagnosis.

Full diagnosis / story was that one afternoon (after having been used that morning) it struggled to turn over. The battery was a few years old and it's done a lot of stop / starting so thought it was a duff battery. Put it on the charger overnight and the following day was still struggling to turn over. Then just as I was going to give up it coughed and I kept going and eventually she fired up. A few seconds later I noticed some oil coming out of the exhaust stack so killed it.

Checked oil level a bit later and it was high so went to drain some out and found there was a bit of water / coolant in it. I ended up doing a full oil change. Tried again and still struggling to turn over but fired up again and then coolant and oil came out of the stack.

Decided to pull the head and that's when I discovered she'd been overheated at some point as the bores were scored. Head gasket looked okay so given state of bores (engine had 5400h on it when I got it about 5 years ago) decided to pull the engine.

I think what actually happened was the water pump O rings and gasket had failed because the second time I fired it up diagnosing things she'd dumped 5l or so of coolant into the sump in 5s so that quantity couldn't have gone through the head. Anyway a rebuild kit was supplied by @8ob which turned out to be the wrong kit (for a turbo engine which the only significant difference other than a turbo is the gudgeon pins are 1/8" bigger) but correct kit ordered and since the engine was out just did a full rebuild of the short block.

That was 18 months ago, I spent some time investigating sending it off before ending up doing it myself. I got busy with work so not a lot happened and since last Christmas I've been waiting for the conrods to come back from honing with a local machinist.

Given it's just used about our home it doesn't get a huge amount of use compared to a contractor machine but decided a full rebuild and it should hopefully outlast us.

 

[sako243]

@mechman this was a Perkins 1004 AA build. They're a bit notorious for the timing cover rotting out (basically the aluminium timing cover corroding between the pump and the timing gears), I didn't have that I think because I caught it early so the water pump didn't have a chance to make it worse.

 

[mechman]

I have a Perkins 4.236 in my 3cx, seems a good motor (up to now) Cracking starter etc. Don't think I've come across 1004AA.

 

[GRW]

@mechman this was a Perkins 1004 AA build. They're a bit notorious for the timing cover rotting out (basically the aluminium timing cover corroding between the pump and the timing gears), I didn't have that I think because I caught it early so the water pump didn't have a chance to make it worse.

I've seen several 1000/Phase Series 4 & 6 pot engines with failing head gaskets in standby gensets.
Really good engines but it seems they eat head gaskets if the coolant/rust inhibitor is neglected.
(The standby engines are hardly doing any hours, but the constant "black start" coolant heaters age the coolant as if it were in regular use. White calcified streaks doen the side of the block being a tell-tale symptom).

 

[sako243]

I have a Perkins 4.236 in my 3cx, seems a good motor (up to now) Cracking starter etc. Don't think I've come across 1004AA.

I think the 1000 series basically the next generation following on from the 4.236 (mine's a 1995 2CX). I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with them but they don't like running without coolant for very long as @GRW says and without a decent antifreeze bits start going wrong on it. Run it as Perkins intended and they're a great little engine.

I ended up having to learn quite a lot about this engine as a consequence as there's quite a lot of information on the web about the 4.236 but not the 1000 series although they are very similar. The 100X refers to the number of cylinders 4 or 6. The build code AX means 1000 series / Phaser, where X can be pretty much anything from A-Z denotes the specific variant, basically A means naturally aspirated in this instance.

Then you have agricultural builds, industrial builds, automotive builds with different timing covers for different accessories, different sumps (whether they're structural or not) and I think also a different block for some agricultural variants where the bell housing is integrated as it's a structural member of the tractor. There's three different fuel pump set ups depending on application and crucially in my instance two different gudgeon pin sizes for turbo/non-turbo builds.

All basically the same but nothing the same kind of engine setup. I actually went to have a look at a complete running Phaser build locally and because it was a complete low hours one he wanted a fair price for it, about £800 I think but nothing was the same as the JCB engine so I felt it was a bit steep in my instance where basically I just wanted some conrods with bushes.

Edit: full rebuild manual is available here which is bloody handy.

 

[mechman]

I think the 1000 series basically the next generation following on from the 4.236 (mine's a 1995 2CX). I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with them but they don't like running without coolant for very long as @GRW says and without a decent antifreeze bits start going wrong on it. Run it as Perkins intended and they're a great little engine.

I ended up having to learn quite a lot about this engine as a consequence as there's quite a lot of information on the web about the 4.236 but not the 1000 series although they are very similar. The 100X refers to the number of cylinders 4 or 6. The build code AX means 1000 series / Phaser, where X can be pretty much anything from A-Z denotes the specific variant, basically A means naturally aspirated in this instance.

Then you have agricultural builds, industrial builds, automotive builds with different timing covers for different accessories, different sumps (whether they're structural or not) and I think also a different block for some agricultural variants where the bell housing is integrated as it's a structural member of the tractor. There's three different fuel pump set ups depending on application and crucially in my instance two different gudgeon pin sizes for turbo/non-turbo builds.

All basically the same but nothing the same kind of engine setup. I actually went to have a look at a complete running Phaser build locally and because it was a complete low hours one he wanted a fair price for it, about £800 I think but nothing was the same as the JCB engine so I felt it was a bit steep in my instance where basically I just wanted some conrods with bushes.

Edit: full rebuild manual is available here which is bloody handy.

Rebore or liners?

 

[sako243]

Rebore or liners?

Liners. A rebuild kit from parts4engines which includes pretty much everything needed is about £500. That's gaskets, new finished liners, new bearings, new little end bushes, new gudgeon pins, new pistons with new rings. Put a new waterpump on as it was only £60 too.

My only cock-up was changing the little end bushes which then needed honing which is what took forever. Could have probably not bothered but it was out so might as well do a proper job.