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Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace

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hermetic:
Excellent progress Andrew, now if you had an old tractor radiator with an electric fan behind it, you could shove the cooling water through it and keep the foundry dry in winter!
Phil

awemawson:
First thing this morning I gingerly applied a bit more force to the  generator diesel tank shut off valve and managed to close it without snapping off the delicate operating lever - phew ! It's ever so stiff but it's probably not been used in twenty years.

This means that I can dismantle the down stream plumbing towards the lift pump and re-assemble hopefully to cure the weep. Careful examination tells me that it is entirely possible that the leak is actually at the cover gasket of the lift pump. I presume that there is a mesh filter under it. Anyway I'll dismantle the cover and the gland fittings and put it back together with some loctite thread sealant.

The lift pump is by AC so I need to google drawings if any exist for this 1970's item.

But not just now - it's only minus 1.5 deg C out there but feels a lot colder. Being a wimp I'll do it when it warm up a bit !

russ57:
it's just dropped below 30 here... Degrees c that is - at 9pm.
Expecting a low of 25 at 2am then 40 tomorrow.
(Melbourne, Oz)



-russ

awemawson:
I'm on my way Russ, put the beers in the 'fridge !

Well it turns out that my policy of getting my hands on all documentation that I can regarding newly acquired second hand machinery has paid off  :ddb:

One of my eBay purchases was a full manual for the engine - well for one very similar actually, and in it are three pages dedicated to the lift pump along with an exploded diagram. Rather over the top I reckon as the construction is entirely conventional - these lift pumps are all very similar. My Italian cold saw uses one for cutting oil off some Italian vehicle  and when it failed I was able to replace it with a spare that I had held for my JCB digger! In fact even the internals were interchangeable.

So as suspected there is a filter under the cover which I'll whip off when the wind changes.

(Photos attached at higher resolution as they are a bit detailed)

awemawson:
This afternoon I pulled it all apart an hopefully have sorted the weep - time only will tell.

When I looked closely at the picture of the lift pump I realised that there were distinct signs of fatigue crystallisation of the solder joint retaining the ferrule onto the diesel pipe, now this is lower than where I saw apparent weeping but with an engine vibrating odd things happen with liquids.

To satisfactorily re-solder the ferrule involved removing the rather long and complicated fuel pipe - easy enough except that there are three spring clips retaining it that are fixed with self tapping screws into the engine casting. Every similar clip screw holding the wiring when I re-built it sheared off, so this time I carefully bent the clips to release the pipe. After that just two ferrules to unscrew. Blow the diesel out of the pipe, clean pipe and ferrule and re-soft-solder. I think fittings like this should be hard soldered, but it's lasted best part of 50 years so far and it's pretty well impossible to clean solder off sufficiently to let you hard solder / braze.

Then I opened up the lift pump and cleaned it up, unscrewed the inlet coupler, re-fitted it with Loctite Thread sealant, cleaned up the cover and it's rubber seal and re-fitted it with a smear of sealant.

Once the pipe was re-fitted (clips a bit of a pain!) I turned back on the tank stop cock, slackened off the lift pump inlet fitting bleeding diesel through, tightened it up again and crossed my fingers starting the eingine.

No dramas, engine fired up normally and I ran it for maybe five minutes to no apparent weeping. However I've just been out to check it and darn me if there isn't weeping from the lift pump cover gasket  :bang:

Not a major issue if I can find a replacement - it's domed - not sure if that is by design or by age - may be a flat one would work inwhich case I can make one  :scratch:

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