CS 6/1 SOM

[swcornwall]

hi all, im new here.
ive got a 6/1 2.5kw SOM, on delivery it broke lose and fell out of the van, it landed on the oil pump side, listeroil on here has been totally amazing with helping me with this engine and successfully has it generating 240v now. thanks mate
but ive got a small oil leak coming out the right hand bearing i think, its a very small amount but enough to be worrying me, theres alot of movement up and down on the right flywheel too around 4-5mm and the bottom of the flywheel is around 10mm from the base, shes not on a concrete base because the landowner where i live says a cubic mtr of concrete isnt allowed, ill be burying 2 I beams as heavy as i can get for anchoring.
could the oil leak be bearings and felts? 
also how do the cooling out and inputs seal up to the cooling tank? ive used tank couplers but they dont obviously wont fit a curved surface being flat.
sorry for the amount of questions and thanks for having me
Simon

[Samo]

Hi Simon

Is the movement due to flywheel imbalance / vibration or something else?  it's not quite clear from your description. 
For the tank, depending on the type of tank, I'd be soldering or brazing the cooling inlet/outlet. Work a flange on to one end of the pipe so that it fits the tank and provides good surface area / strength for the join. You don't want the join to crack from vibration.

Samo

[swcornwall]

im not sure what the movement is from, the drive wheel is fine runs but the other one is like the crank is bent from the impact, im hoping maybe a bearing had gone instead of the crank.
its a 55gal oil drum, ill pick some brazing rods up next time im in town thanks
Simon

[Samo]

Simon,
I'm sure others on here are more qualified to make suggestions. If it were mine, I'd chock the valve, open the crank inspection plate ( to reduce crankcase pressure ) and turn the engine over by hand checking for any tight spots, I'd measure crank to ground at each wheel spoke.

Samo     

[32 coupe]

Simon
I think a wobble in the wheel would indicate a bent crank.
In other words if you would hold a stick in one position somewhere  near the out SIDE
rim of the flywheel and rotate the wheel and the dimension goes from wide to narrow
and the wheel appears to wobble it's probably a bent crank. I hope I explained this well
enough to understand.

If it's an up and down movement then I would expect to see a bad crank bearing. Hard for me
to see how an up and down movement would be possible with those heavy flywheels but I've
never claimed to be an expert !

Give us some more/better info. Many guys here with better insight than myself !

Gary

[dieselgman]

Measure the actual run-out at the end of the crankshaft with dial-indicator if possible. Minor bends can often be repaired and there are examples of accomplishing this in commentary on this forum.

Welcome to the forum!

dieselgman

[Hugh Conway]

@swcornwall
As I was about to reply, Gary put in his $.02. I would agree with his suggestion, check the flywheel run-out. Since it is a sleeve bearing crank, I doubt the problem will be there w/o corresponding crank damage.......oh, bother!
We have heard os some listeroids having bent cranks from a vertical drop during shipping with flywheels installed.
Use your ears as well as measurements, check the bearing carriers as well.
Best of luck.

Cheers,
Hugh

[swcornwall]

thanks for your replies,
@Samo ill have to be buying new tools i think, i dont have many precision tooling so thatll be a great start.
@Gary its definitely up and down movement ill get a video tomorrow, but yeah its a huge weight to be wobbling around, im attemping no to have to replace the crank i just cant afford it at the moment
@dieselgman ill have to buy new tools to do this and borrow some in the mean time, poor thing is chugging away happily, gib keys are tight but the one on the wobbling wheel had to be replaced because it had rattled loose and wasnt very big. Thanks
@Hugh ill get these measurements asap, its going to be quite essential to have a working generator soon

Simon

[dieselgman]

If it has much wobble and you continue to run in this condition, you might end up with other damages. At the least it might do some damage to the main bearing.

Do you feel any resistance when you roll it by hand?

If it was an option, I would avoid running the thing until after it is straightened up.

dieselgman

[Gippslander]

Hi from Australia

Could you replace the bent? crankshaft . A new crankshaft will fix your problem. 6mm runout sounds terminal to me

You would have to find a engineers with a heavy hydraulic press to repair that bent crank.

Mike

[swcornwall]

nope no resistance when turned by hand. ive noticed that the oak packing underneath has moved a bit so it might be amplifying the wobble a bit.
ill be packing underneath today after jacking up and see if the wobble stops a bit.
wheres the cheapest place for a crankshaft? SEP have bad press for tolerances apparently and at £195 without courier its alot for me to find at the moment. what else will i need to buy to replace the crank? can i use new type bearings?

thanks again
Simon

[vdubnut62]

It may be possible to straighten that crank without even removing it from the engine. The Antique Engine crowd seems to accomplish this feat regularly, with the use of a sturdy doorway,
hydraulic jack and appropriate timber/cribbing. I would search smokstak.com and Gas Engine Magazine for the pertinent articles. I would give it a try if I were in that situation.
Ron.

[dieselgman]

There is also some commentary on this forum regarding straightening a bent crank in-situ.

The doorway press is interesting if you have a substantial enough steel or stone structure to manage it.

dieselgman

[dieselspanner]

Hi

As mentioned, check the crank first, if it's as far out as 6mm you should be able to see the problem using a nothing more than a pair of axle stands.
The doorway press works, I do it horizontally between the posts of my stone built barn as the roof is relatively light.

I've recently replaced the mains on my 6/1 with roller bearings from Devprecision, in Rajkot, India. the bearing carriers were poorly machined and lacking a lathe I set about things with a 4" angle grinder and 'adjusted' the bearing cases to fit. The worst bit was the lack of allowance on the inner races for the radius on the crank webs. Do remember to clean all the grinding dust out of the bearings if you try this at home!
It took an afternoon, a lot of test fitting and a set of gaskets made from a Lidl's beer box and printer paper to centre the crank.

If you go down the Dev route make sure you order the taper roller bearings for 2" shaft, I ended up with 2 1/4", after a bit of prompting they were replaced FOC.

There's a lot of good, helpful guys on the site with loads of knowledge and real time experience working out of workshops you could dine in, there's also a contingent working to minimal budgets with little more than hand tools. Never loose sight of the fact that the CS roots are around a century old and blokes with nothing more than a few spanners and a lot of 'common dog' have been keeping them running in the back of beyond ever since..........
Cheers Stef

[swcornwall]

Thanks for the replies again,  I'm waiting for a spare pair of hands so I can put new packing under the base,  but I've just got permission to pour a proper concrete base after the landlord actually seeing the lister running and feeling the thud.
When it's all levelled off again I'll be able to have a look properly and see what's exactly wrong.
I phoned sleeman-hawken and their price on a crankshaft was quite a lot different from the one from SEP.
My ammeter in the control box doesn't work,  could this be why I have no auto start? Also the load relays are a bit worn out,  can I get replacement ones anywhere?
Thanks again
Simon