"Industrial Archaeology®" or How to tame wild Speed Queens

[jetcone]

Well today was a corner turner for the 1960 Speed Queen- yes I found a 1960 stamp on the transmission, and this tranny also has a  stamp that says "Arc-cuate" !!! 

 

First was a new technique for restoring not so bad rubber hoses. I have found the red high temp silicone rubber to be a life saver here. It sticks to rubber really well. When a hose is just cracking you can do this trick and get more life out of it. Heck the Easy has been going 2 years now with this and the '57 SQ has been running a year like this. It sure beats hunting for new "bendy" hoses - believe me !

 

 

[this post was last edited: 12/12/2015-16:09]

 

[jetcone]

Next the

necessary but incredibly messy tranny overhaul. First one has too clean the outside. We don't want any of that grit getting into the tranny itself !

This machine had sat in a factory where they had worked on the V2 rocket, satellites -gawd knows what else for the NSA so it had very strange dusts all around. 

These were removed scientifically.

 

These machines were loved its obvious but getting inside what is not so obvious is how past the due date the lubricants were!! 

To my surprise this tranny was the worst I've seen.  When cleaning I thought some of the components in cast iron had come from bad moldings! There was these huge hunks of what looked like metal all around the castings. It was hard-solid too.

But after 30 mins in the kerosene a hunk just fell off , then I discovered it was carbonized lube!! It was all around the journal bearings just where the heat is generated. It had blocked the oil port holes too which made the journal bearings run even hotter.

I would suppose it would soon turn to carbon if I hadn't gone in to clean. And then the next step would be diamond!! Which Fred says would be worth more than I paid for them LOL !

 

 

[jetcone]

next the yucky

part.

The part when one gets down and dirty. Where you wear the worst clothes, work outdoors and have to hand scrub and scrub and scrub in kerosene. What a mess !

 

You can see in the first photo two of the tranny bolts were loose! The tranny had been leaking for years out one end.   The original oil looked clear , look at the threads on the bolts, you can see through the oil down to the threads.

Not so when you get inside !! Not by a long shot. Here is where all the work was done, and as I have said before these are NOT sealed systems. Unlike the GE tranny where oil can look new after 60 years !! These trannys are exposed to atmosphere so the oil is churned with air for 60 years. That produces SLUDGE !! Pure and simple! So it all has to come off otherwise it will contaminate the new oil and break it down. 

 

That sludge doesn't even pour off, I had to use a putty knife to get it off the components. 

 

[jetcone]

3 hours of subbing and cleaning sludge

And we are left with >>>>>>> TA DA..>>>>>>>>>

 

[jetcone]

Stay tuned to this channel

for more "Industrial Archaeology®" coming up.

 

[toploader55]

Good Lord !!!

You'd think a V-2 Rocket engineer would have looked after those machines better.

 

Lord knows what her Mink would have looked like if she didn't get these Queens.

 

I hope you had your complete Haz Mat Suit on with the Respirator !!!

 

[toploader55]

Good Lord !!!

You'd think a V-2 Rocket engineer would have looked after those machines better.

 

Lord knows what her Mink would have looked like if she didn't get these Queens.

 

I hope you had your complete Haz Mat Suit on with the Respirator !!!

 

[blackstone]

Where do you get that red rubber stuff, and what is it called?

By coincidence, speaking of 1960, I posted a picture of a 1960 calendar. In the Super Forum.

I sure don't envy that cleaning job, but you gots to do what you gots to do.

 

[mayfan69]

Great work

Great work Jon.

That's a lot of work you've done.

Cheers
Leon

 

[a440]

Wow!  I can't get over that oil!  Are you going to recycle it?

This is going to be one beautiful set!  Such great history!

Thanks for the pictures so far!

 

 

[washman]

long live

the arc-cuate 210!

 

[appnut]

I AM IMPRESSED!!!

 

[LaVidaBoem]

Looks great>>

Very nice JetCone,

 

I am aware of similar type sludge as you mention...

Didn't know if you were aware of what we use "here" in the tranny biz to clean parts/cases.

 

Very close to your mentioned Kerosene, but we use Varsol.

It is a trademarked version of Mineral Spirits/Stoddard Solvent.

(On the fracking tower, its above Kerosene)

 

Exxon made a fine grade of mineral spirits, and patented it.

They removed the sulfur, and did one other thing that wasn't published, have never really known for sure...but its great stuff.

 

My mentor for tranny's was a retired Ford  guy.

He told me that it would be hard for me to find varsol, as it was getting hard for him; it was a used as a dry cleaning fluid for years...something like since the 20's.

 

I have been lucky, we have one oil distributor that still carries it.

We buy it by the 55 gallon drum; when I started in '80, it was a $1.50 a gallon, now over $8...

 

Ford used a unique automatic transmission fluid badged as "Type F" in tranny's from early (>?) on to the mid/later 70's.

Anyway, clutch material in those Ford's are unique, and require only that fluid; but, when it burns the fluid, it would stain the case that nut brown/sludge color you have shown here.

 

We use a large, heavy metal hooded dishwasher to wash aluminum, or cast iron, cases.

When a really bad Ford of that vintage comes in, the aluminum case will be stained so bad, that the normal dishwasher will not make a dent as far as removal...(water based with a detergent about 10 times the strength of regular powder Cascade).

 

The Varsol used for even Hand/Manual cleaning of a tranny case wouldn't do it easy; but normal soak type carb cleaner is the bomb.

 

One of the features of Varsol was the no staining of white cotton.

My mentor reminded me that if I wanted to know for sure that a company sold Varsol, take a white man's handkerchief, dip in the suspect mineral spirits...hang to dry.

When dry, the kerosene/mineral spirits would always be yellow tinged; the varsol would be white.

 

And the Point?? only that here in the tranny work, kerosene left a film on valves in some valvebodies that would stick a valve...no rhyme or reason, could be stuck cold, or when hot.

Shops that didn't use varsol would usually not a touch a Ford of that era.

 

Anyway, useless stuff, but seeing that case and parts, made me think how hard you worked to get that stuff off!!

Good luck, and keep the pics coming.

 

>>Blackstone>>

I assume he is speaking of RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanizing) Red silione sealer.

Any of your parts stores for auto's has it...and many others...probably wally world by now.

 

Hope this Helps,

LaVidaBoem

 

 

[gansky1]

Outdoors is right. Yuck. Gratifying work though, look how nice that is now.

 

[blackstone]

RTV

Googled it and found it. Thanks.

 

[jetcone]

Well LaVida

my dad taught me to use kerosene for this kind of thing because it has a large molecule that is not absorbed by the skin so its a little safer. I wonder since your Varsol is up the ladder if it is lighter?

 

As far as film is concerned its not a problem for these slow transmissions.

 

But sticking valves, I wonder if the kerosene had dissolved some other part of the transmission to make the valves stick like that?

 

I am missing one thrust washer, must have gone down the drain! 

 

Fred you'll like that stuff, most Auto Zone's carry it

 

 

 

 

 

[LaVidaBoem]

Lighter and Tastier...

JetCone>>

 

Yes, its lighter...and you are right about the skin thing, although, as mentioned, my Mentor was in that stuff all his life...His hands looked like a teenager.

 

He told me to wash often and use Vaseline Intensive care, and only a hand-cleaner with Lanolin.

 

To this day, when someone meets me, the first thing they usually comment on is my hands.

They don't believe I am a mechanic; never thought that much about it...but they haven't aged like the tops of my arms...so who knows?

 

I was going to put a link in for people; went to wiki, and they don't even have it correct...talked about "White Spirits", so I didn't put the link.

 

Its also funny, your Dad was ahead of his generation seems; most men of that era liked pure old GASOLINE to clean with...Wow!

 

Thanks for the comments,

LaVidaBoem

 

Edited:

 

Post Script:

To answer your question about the film...it was Ford's machining of the valves/valve body.

Their tolerances were that of the AeroSpace Industry.

Even a small fiber from a red shop towel was enough to lock a valve in a valvebody.

 

[washer111]

Wow John, you really had your work cut out for you with this!

However, I can see why "Dentist's Recommend Oral-B," its clearly highly specialized in the area of SpaceAgeDust-Removal

Another point is this demonstrates the absurdity of "lifetime" fills of oil for automobiles (*cough* BMW *cough*), as well as washers and other appliances where air is allowed into the system through filling ports or vent holes.

You've put a lot of effort in here, and I expect the resulting product will run far cooler, (as a result of less friction and thus wear) and far more smoothly for far longer than if you hadn't done this restoration.

Another thing: You needn't worry about dirty work clothes - Your Arcuate-210° SpeedQueen will be MORE than capable of shifting the dirt. I'm sure Ben, (Patronus-absolutus) can kindly provide some literature to support a claim to this effect

 

[jetcone]

I don't mind saying

What a bastard !
I decided to remove the spin tube which looked like 3 easy
Bolts ! Boy was I wrong ! Way harder than yesterday's job!
Then I found a motor bolt had been over tightened
It has split the lock washer !!

So now the spin tube is out I'm gonna try putting
On the commercial spin pulley and ramp up the
Speed to 730!!

Anybody know what the new spin belt size should be?
I don't have any commercial doctrine on these machines.
Jet