Lever project - Urania 1 group

Koffee_Kosmo

I seriously recommending that you source a stud with an allen key drive hole in the end This will allow you to tighten or when required to remove the stud I also recommend to use low strength loctite   Apart from holding the stud in place, application of loctite will also act as a barrier & protect the thread from bad stuff growing on it over time / years KK

borat123

My boxes of parts are getting closer. Online tracking shows they made it from Europe to Guangzhou China.....

Koffee_Kosmo

I don't know if this will help - EXHAUST-STUDS-Moped-Motorbike-Honda 6M with allen key drive end should be able to get them in Adelaide Just like these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M6-x-35-STAINLESS-EXHAUST-STUDS-Moped-Motorbike-Honda-/380342307570 KK

borat123

on 1317428447:

I don't know if this will help - EXHAUST-STUDS-Moped-Motorbike-Honda 6M with allen key drive end should be able to get them in Adelaide Just like these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M6-x-35-STAINLESS-EXHAUST-STUDS-Moped-Motorbike-Honda-/380342307570 KK

Thanks KK, I'll check them out.. Fedex tracking is great - I can see my parts are enjoying the scenic route.  Now they've made it to Singapore.

Koffee_Kosmo

on 1317443223:

Thanks KK, I'll check them out.. Fedex tracking is great - I can see my parts are enjoying the scenic route.  Now they've made it to Singapore.

Ha ha Singapore is where the next KKTO has been sent Maybe your parts and the KKTO can meet up for a coffee KK

borat123

Good to see the KKTO conquering the world.... Time to throw out all those 300gm plastic fantastic's..   The spare parts are now in Sydney awaiting customs clearance!

borat123

have confirmed the engine block stud thread pitch is 1.0 Now to check with Coventry what the original is, when the shops open again tomorrow...

borat123

My parts boxes are scheduled to sit at Adelaide airport for the entire week because it's an 'Economy' shipment...  ::) Anyway,  Fedex have agreed that I can come in and pick them up myself if I feel so inclined.  So I'll drive out to the airport tomorrow afternnon and grab the lot. The glass printing place is doing the artwork, removing the old paint, then will print with ceramic ink and fire it in the kiln to make permanent.  The new colour will last even longer than the last one did (44 years...)   It's an expensive process but will look a hell of a lot better than a sticker, re-uses the original glass, and will last forever. I also ordered the stud + dome nut combo today to make up replacements for the group head bolts. There is a new E61 cuppola hood in my parts boxes that I'm going to sell off, and a repro of the original shell shaped hood will be fitted.

borat123

Have finally retrieved all the parts boxes from the airport. It feels like Santa has delivered early; there are so many bits to unwrap and see what's inside...  :D I can put the piston and lever body back together now, and 3-way valve & steam valve, but the bulk of it will have to wait another week or two for the rest of the parts to come back from the platers. Also spent an hour at the glass painting place with the ink man and the Faema book,  working out which colour is the best match to the original.

Koffee_Kosmo

It all sounds like fun in a mechanical engineers kinda way It will all be worth it in the end KK

borat123

And here's the latest news as the Urania resto rolls along.... I opened up the parts boxes and dug out the replacement lever body (remember, the old one was broken..); so far so good.... Lined them up next to each other and: The new body is 15mm larger than the old one!  :o This means the piston is not going to be in the right position in the group head - about 15mm too high. So, I've had to order another spring (165mm), and a replacement lever rod.  One of the guys from HB in New Zealand came up with a spring for me, and I was lucky to find the right sized rod in stock at Orphan Espresso in the US. Next I found that the pre-infusion valve body I ordered as a replacement (this was a result of my skillful  ::) use of the stillsons to get it out), has a different thread size to the original, so back to thinking about how I can use the old one I stuffed during removal. I dropped the old one into the machine shop for repair .  They're going to to silver solder a new bit of rod into it, and re-tap.  The thread is all on the inside so it won't affect the look of it.  The outside edges where the teeth made a few bite-marks will also be filled / smoothed. First cab off the rank for putting back together was the steam tap & body.  I was so glad I managed to get all the little bits of rubber and exactly the right gaskets, otherwise it would have been a bit of a mess.  Detective work looking at schematics of modern Faema's paid dividends and I found everything I needed.  Although the machines look different, it's nice to see the heritage of the old stuff, still there in the new. Hoping for possibly next Friday to get a load of stuff back from the platers so I can start the rebuild.

Ronin

Could you get the new lever body machined down to suit?

borat123

Hi Ronin, Hmmm, now you've got me thinking.... It's a possibility, but there are threaded bolt holes recessed just up from the bottom edge, so it can sit properly on the top of the group head.  It's not as simple as just cutting the bottom of it; the wall thickness would need to be turned down on the inside as well.  Not sure how the alloy casting would take to being turned on lathe. It would also require a custom spring made, as for the smaller body there's no 'standard' spring available anymore.  The larger body size on the right, I'm still able to get off the shelf parts for, such as the lever rod and 165mm spring. I'm thinking perhaps the pressure profile with the bigger body / longer spring might have a gentler curve too (?)  The larger size seems to be much more common, and from what I've read seems to work quite well on the Lambro. Another alternative is to repair the original small casting, but not sure how long lasting it would be with a custom made piece somehow fitted to it.  I doubt it's solderable - it would need to be mechanically fixed.  The bit that's broken off the original, is the lever stop for the upright position, which needs some strength to it. So there you have it - the path of least resistance at this stage seems to be to just go with the larger body size. 

Koffee_Kosmo

Stick to the larger piston Both mechanically and heat stability would be better If that new piston is only polished alloy it may give you an opportunity to have it chromed before fitting KK

borat123

Hi KK, The piston size and group head remain the same; the lever body that sits on top comes in 3 different sizes,  and hence the different spring and rod length requirement.  Yes, I think I'm going to stick with the larger (medium) one - it's already chromed too. Age wise I'm guessing that the large is the oldest, followed by small, then medium.  Maybe medium size was the final incarnation that worked the best (?)  I haven't yet found any comparison of taste in the cup between the different sizes... Here's some pics off another site showing the three different variants of the Zodiac T1 group: Small Medium Large

Ronin

Hi Ronin, Hmmm, now you've got me thinking.... It's a possibility, but there are threaded bolt holes recessed just up from the bottom edge, so it can sit properly on the top of the group head.  It's not as simple as just cutting the bottom of it; the wall thickness would need to be turned down on the inside as well.  Not sure how the alloy casting would take to being turned on lathe.

The casting should be fine, and by the sound of it anyway, any half descent fitter and turner should have no trouble with this alteration. Lathe and milling machine with knowledge makes it easy. Not sure about the  spring tho.

borat123

Anyone know where I can buy old style 240v fluoro tube like this...? Probably only looking for something with a max length of around 15" (T8).  Yellow colour would be good. Do they even make them in this style anymore?  Happy to use the brackets just to hold the tube, instead of the electrical connection as per the original. Here's one on ebay T8, 14W 15".  Almost what I want, but surely it's available locally somewhere? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/25-F14T8-CW-LONG-LIFE-8000HR-14W-15-Fluorescent-Tube-/290377163305?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item439bd3e229 Or maybe a small led tube light?    ** Update edit:  I just found someone here in Adelaide who shows that tube on the their website. I'll give them a call on Monday. Would still like to hear from anyone who finds them in colour, or available elsewhere, in case the store here doesn't have them in stock.

Koffee_Kosmo

Borat I would try the local aquarium to find fluro bulbs of varying types KK

Brett H

Party supplies stores may also have various colours but a local lighting store may be your best bet.

borat123

I bought another tool today, you know, another one to add to the list of the tools you never knew you needed  ::) Got the other bearing off the old lever fork, cleaned up all the grease and crap and had a good look at it. Here's some old part vs new part pics.  As you can see the replacement is chromed steel, the old one is aluminium. The locking pin was unseated from one of the holes, and over time appears to have made a bit of a mess of the fork Looks like the hole in the lever rod was elongated as well  

Koffee_Kosmo

That would probably be many years of wear Still I think that this machine rebuild has been the fastest I have seen by a country mile KK

borat123

All my free time at home is fast running out KK....  Got to make hay while the sun shines 

borat123

**  Warning  **  Lot's of pics and a long winded resto diary entry tonight....  I spent the afternoon today running around getting electrical bits and pieces, and some more stainless bolts. First up is a pic of the T8 14W, 360mm fluoro.  It turns out fluoro's this size are imported, and quite hard to find - unfortunately they don't come in colour.  I bought fittings for each end; one side also has the holder built in to take the starter.  You can see the original brackets are the only thing holding the whole lot in place - I might need to bend the metal fingers of the bracket into a new curve, or make up some new metal bits, as it was designed to hold a much smaller tube. The rear cover has two holes for the cable from each end of the tube.  I'm going to terminate it on the inside of the cover with the little ceramic block.  From there it will run on high temp 2.5mm 3 core (ordered, but won't arrive for about 3 weeks), to the original ceramic plug and socket. I also ordered a couple of acrylic tube covers, one yellow and one in blue.  I'll try these out to change the light colour, and if no good will just use the fluoro on it's own. Here's the original harness.  I want to re-use all the original ceramic bits.  Where the new hi-temp cable branches off, I'm going to cover each core with some glass sheath, then for appearance, put back the little ceramic heat shields. Next,  I bought some stainless bolts to replace the originals used for the lever body brackets.  The originals have a non-threaded bit close to the bolt head that is a larger diameter than the rest of the thread.  You can see the stepped hole in the old lever body: And here's the 'non-stepped' mounting holes in the new lever body: And the finished product with the new stainless bolts: And another problem still to be solved...    The top cover is supposed to have two cheese head bolts to fix it to the lever body.  My original arrived with them missing.....  Here's a pic of the body - the two offending threaded holes you can see just to the left and right of the larger black rubber lever stop: I went into Coventry again today (they love me when I come in just to buy two bolts...  ;D  ) and had them try to find a matching cheese head. They reckon it's some strange euro / italian thread pitch, possibly 0.5, and they don't stock it. So now I have to find somewhere that can supply a couple of 3 x 16mm, cheese head with 0.5 pitch.... Something a bit like this, but with the correct pitch: Any ideas where best to go for some of these?

Koffee_Kosmo

Look at model car " RC " places for those cheese head bolts Borat I know it sounds crazy but I am pretty sure they use .5 pitch I just checked to satisfy my curiosity & found some here - http://www.modelcomponents.com.au/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=58&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26 KK

borat123

on 1318241706:

Ya the man KK....

I second that, thanks KK  8)    I'll check it out tomorrow..

borat123

Model components had a M3 x 12mm, 0.5 pitch, which should do the job.. The order should arrive within a week.

borat123

I paid a visit to the plating shop today to check progress of all the bits and pieces I left with them a couple of weeks ago. Everything has been acid bathed and inspected.  The group head and all the front facing and visible fancy bits have already been re-chromed.  Some other parts are 'commercial' chromed with no further work done, and some to a higher quality with more prep work. The chome bits that need to look 100% have been repaired if needed (panelbeating out dents etc...), then copper dipped first to cover any imperfections or pitting and to seal, then prep polished, chromed, then a final polish.  These bits such as the cover should come up looking immaculate.  The group head looks fantastic already, even before the final polish.  The piston bore has had a very light super-fine polish and is now as smooth as a baby's ar5e... The aluminium trim from the rear of the cover, and the aluminium trimming around the cup tray had previous corrosion issues, but after acid dipping and polishing have come up smooth and shiny.  They'll both be 'gold' chromed instead of annodising again, which will also seal against any further corrosion. The boiler has been dipped but not polished yet.  The only disappointment was from whoever silver soldered the mount plate onto the boiler put splotches of solder all over the place... but fortunately on the bottom so not particlarly visible.  All the other brass fitting solderwork was a work of art.  Anyway, it will still look good once polished, with a shiny copper boiler and gleaming brass lid. Also getting an acorn bolt/nut turned up to replace a missing one, and a set of three group head bolts/nuts (I'll use whichever set looks better - these or the ones made up with studs + dome nuts) It's finally starting to come togeher now, and I think I can see some light at the end of the tunnel....

Lacehim

I was thinking the same AM.  Did you have a budget Borat???

borat123

on 1318321479:

Should we even think of asking what sort of pennies might be involved... Some of that work sounds quite intensive  8)

Hi AM, it's expensive but only a fraction of it's value when finished...  At the end of the day, for me this one's a keeper and will be used at home for our daily coffees, so I don't mind putting the time and $$ into it.  If it was only for resale, I could have done it a lot cheaper and not bothered so much with half of the stuff I've done.... Sometimes I tend to get carried away a bit with my resto's  ??? I'm also selling off the Cimbali 2 group, and a nice tax refund to pay for the expenses.....

Koffee_Kosmo

I love it all Excellent my friend Excellent KK