The engine deep clean continues. The transmission was a mess but has cleaned up well. I doubt I’ll disassemble the transmission so this might be it unless I find anything functionally wrong. There might be a way but I can’t see how the transmission can be removed without lifting the crankshaft and that isn’t in my plans if I don’t have to.
After cleaning up the transmission casing it was time to move onto something else. One of the unknowns that could decide whether this engine runs again is the condition of the oilers. These two Madison-Kipp oilers provide most of the lubrication. They are a bit complicated and an ongoing concern has been their condition. If water had made its way into the oilers it might be a real challenge so I decided to start in on one of them. I started with the one that looked more rough.
There are 10 oil lines from each of the two pumps. The flow rate is adjustable for each oil line. This is technology that had been well established when this engine was designed and built. Madsion-Kipp oilers were found it many applications including industrial and steam. The company is still in business. I was able to download documentation for the oilers although spare parts are long gone. Oil is stored inside each of the oilers and can be manually filled or plumbed in from a large oil tank as I’ve seen in some fish tugs and other applications.
I drained the oiler and found some water but fortunately no rust. But the oil was a nasty blobby mess that would not completely drain out. I started the process of disassembling the oiler with some trepidation giving the complexity of these mechanisms.
You can see on the last picture how the sludge has clogged the inlet screen on the oil pump. But appears to be in otherwise very good condition. So far I don’t see any issues with the oiler at all other than the need for a thorough cleaning and new cork gaskets for the covers and sight glass.
Putting this back together will be a challenge but I think I have it figured out. There is some very cool engineering in this assembly. The eccentric parts only go together one way so all I have to do is keep each of the sub-components indexed. This will keep me busy for a bit. I did find quite a bit of wear on the brass eccentrics closest to the index gear but they should work okay.
Here’s hoping it all goes back together.
