Kondia FV-1 Head disassembly

[PixMan]

I for one am REALLY looking forward to seeing these final steps! I can only wish that I could afford to hop on a plane and come help you, as I'd love to visit you, your family and your shop. One day....

Keep us up to date on this. I know it's a busy time of year for you, so do the best you can. No pressure.

[Mayhem]

You are welcome at any time Ken. Until that day, I'll keep on posting pics.

[Mayhem]

Not much to report except that I finally got the hose from the oil pump to the saddle sorted out. The top outlet on the pump is a 1/4" BSP and the end of the tube has a 5/16-24 straight connector on it. There isn't an adapter available, so I bought a 1/8" bung and drilled and tapped it 5/16-24. I only drilled the letter I size hole 3/4 of the way through, so the olive would close up in the bottom of the hole and give me a nice tight, leak-free fit.

I hooked it up and cycled some oil through and only 1 of the 4 metered oilers on the saddle are working. I'll have to remove those that are not and try to clean them.

This will have to wait for a while though, as the timing belt on my Mum's car failed on Thursday and the valves got introduced to the pistons. Its a 1.9L turbo diesel and I'm hoping I can do the rebuild whilst the motor is still in the car. That will all depend on whether the pistons or the bores are damaged.

John - have you had any experience with the 1.9L turbo diesel Vauxhal Astra?

[PixMan]

Ouch.

Now I'm going to look and see if there's a timing belt on my daughter's car that would be (over)due for a change. Thanks for the painful reminder. There's virtually zero chance of :no damage" to the pistons on a diesel, and everything about the combustion chamber on those is critical to smooth operation. Best of luck to you.

Also hoping you can get oil flowing through all the elements of the lube system on your mill so you can move on with the mechanical reassembly.

[Mayhem]

   
   

[stevec]

Great to see the pics Darren . Is it fully operational? What have you made?

Steve

[DaveH]

Looking good Darren  
 
DaveH

[Mayhem]

Unfortunately, it is not operational.  I just needed to clean up my bench at the workshop where the head has been residing, as I will need it when I rebuild the engine in my Mum's car.

The table is still off and I have to unblock two oil galleys or the oilers themselves on the saddle first.  I then have to make the decision as to whether I drill and ream the locating holes for the yoke to suit the one I bought or put those nuts into the original yoke.

   
   
   

There are other jobs that will need to be done, such as making locks and draw bars (I have tooling that requires M12x1.75, 1/2-12 and 1/2-13).  Some of these will need to be done to get her running but others can be done afterwards.

I also need to know if there is a specific break-in procedure for the new spindle bearings I put in.

[PixMan]

I'm so impressed with the progress!

The old yoke really appears to be FUBAR. How in God's name could anyone ever mangle a casting that badly? Seriously, 3 out of 3 backlash adjustment mechanisms blown right out. Unreal.

My question lies in just what do you need to do to fit the newer one to your machine? From what I can tell you have to add a lubrication port (bottom photo), but not sure what else it is that needs to be done. I can imagine that a critical factor for life of the wear parts (the bronze nuts) would be assuring the center line distances from the mounting surfaces to the centers of the screws/nuts is the same. It doesn't appear that the original was "scraped in", so were there any shims in the assembly? When you say you need to drill and ream locating holes, what is off so much that the better one is not "plug & play" in your machine?

I can't speak to spindle bearing break-in from any point of authority. If it were me I would simply run it at say 500 rpm for a couple of hours in each direction, let it cool, then bump up to 1500, and so on. Watching for excessive heat would be crucial. If it gets too hot (as in, can't keep your hand on it), there may be an alignment issue, but I sincerely doubt you'd have assembled it in any haphazard way.

BTW, is the head otherwise fully operational? Got feeds on the quill and is it running up & down in it's housing smoothly?

[Mayhem]

No shims when I pulled it apart but who knows how it left the factory!

The difference between the two yokes (besides the colour) is that the locating pin (a roll pin visible in the last pic) is ø8mm on the old one and ø10mm on the new one. I have the oiler and the line, so that is no problem. I forgot to bring these with me, so I will do that on Wednesday. I can then check the positioning of the bolt holes but I think they checked out OK when I got the yoke.