Hi Steve. As you know, I got the axle pump to work at the summer steamup by adding a surfactant to the water. But without one, it still would not pump. I disassembled the outfeed to the pump and put Permatex in the threads of the ball travel limiting screw as well as on the threads of the output fitting. This "fixed" it. Apparently, there was enough air entrapped in the threads and the teenie tiny space ever so slightly above the horizontal output fitting to allow compression. But now the f**ker won't steam. My theory is that the surfactant didn't boil away with the water during steaming and collected in the bottom of the vertical tube of the boiler. Hence my attempts to "see" inside. I was going to remove the feed check valve and take a scraping last night, but just didn't have the energy. I DID, however, compare the geometry of the new wick tube feed system with the old one (which steamed quite well) and found no discernable difference. I have yet to check the height of the sump vent tube (which determines the height of the alcohol in the wick tubes). But it followed very closely the height of the original feed system, so I'm doubtful that this is the source of the problem. Another potential source of drag was that I discovered that when you fill the alcohol and water tanks, the weight of the fluids compress the suspension springs to the point where the front wheels were rubbing on the water feed and return lines. I corrected this with heavier springs in the front, but have not steamed it to see if this was the problem causing poor steaming (or catastrophic excess consumption). There are just so many potential sources of problems with these little guys that the solution is never obvious (to me, anyway). And that is their allure.
Other potential sources of the problem: 1.dirty flues 2.contaminated asbestos wicks 3.dying batteries on the blower fan 4.bad attitude of the engineer (or fireman) 5.vacuum leaks in smokebox or firebox 6.residual contamination of the boiler with surfactants or their progeny. And I frequently violate the rule that you change only one variable at a time. royce in SB Steve Shyvers wrote: >Royce, > >In your recent emails you hinted that the axle pump was working quite well >now. What did you do to improve its attitude? > >Steve > > _______________________________________________ SSLiveSteam mailing list Send messages: [email protected] Cancel subscription: http://postfix.45mm.com/mailman/listinfo/sslivesteam Rules: http://www.45mm.com/sslivesteam_guide.html
