I recently realized it has been a year (and a day) since my last update. While a little work has been getting done, I’ve mostly been waiting on bearing work although it has been such a busy year I’ve not pressed the job. But now it is time to get the project back on track and moving forward. I have other projects to tackle and the Kahlenberg is taking up a lot of shop space. And I want to hear it run!
My first step in the bearing process was to set up the line boring equipment. George (the babbitt guy) has all the equipment and gave it to me to prepare. He hasn’t done a job this large so there is some new territory. I’ve already blogged about making the fixture for pouring babbitt in the large main bearings. Now I needed to set up the line bore. The bridges mount to parallel bars. The first trick was attaching the parallel bars to the block. I made a dozen clamps and bolted them to the existing cylinder base mounts which provides excellent strength around the main bearings. I had to use regular c-clamps to attach the bars near the #5 output bearing.
Once the bridge bars were securely attached, I then mounted the bridges and ran the boring bar through each bridge. Centering the boring bar required making centering plugs. I couldn’t find suitable commercial units so I made them out of aluminum. This took some time with my modest mill and lathe but they came out well. These aluminum plugs sit in the bearing saddle with the caps properly installed and torqued. This allowed setting the boring bar within, I’m estimating, a few thousandths of center through the entire nine feet.
I went back and forth adjusting the bridges but got the bar centered and running smoothly without difficulty. There is a gearbox to slowly advance the cutter which is powered by a geared motor. It is kind of amazing how easy it is to set up this whole rig for a novice like me. A clever design and very well-made. The machine was manufactured by Kwik-Way of Marion, Iowa. The manual is dated 1979 and apparently was originally shipped to the Army in Rock Island, Illinois.
Other tasks completed over the past year included making about a dozen bolts from hex stock. You can’t buy these from McMaster-Carr.
This is the jig I made for pouring babbitt into the bearing shells.
Other tasks this past year included finishing rebuilding the air starter, overhauling the three fuel injector pumps and rebuilding one of the water pumps. This pump circulates cooling water. I still have another water pump to do although the second one (starboard side) was used as a bilge pump in the boat so won’t be used now. In fact, the internal pump valving had been removed prior to my getting the engine. I’m starting to run out of things to do before the engine starts going back together, hopefully soon!