Gloop’s Graunching Gearbox II
Gloop’s Graunching gearbox II
by: Andrew R.
After a couple of weeks of shared efforts to investigate, fix and modify the slew breakdown.
Today. We first, at the Depot after detailed discussion, cleaned the 6 holes and surfaces on the flange on the slew gear section. We went off to GR Fasteners and engineering to get 6 new bolts and Nyloc nuts. We had realised today the wrong bolts were fitted in the past. The old bolts were 16mm dia, not 18 mm and not all the same length. We don’t know how it held on for so long but clearly now we know why the slew shifted.
Then we took Augustus from the Dudbridge pound, to the concrete landing stage above Dudbridge lock. Strapped and Lifted the slew gear section on a plank from car to deck. We then mounted the gear section on the slew pontoon plate and bolted it down after a lot of effort and care. Because the bolt heads were bigger one of the heads had to be modified with some critical cuts into two flats so it could go up into the bolt hole whilst meshing with the slew ring teeth. Andrew to the rescue with his portable disc cutter and small vice now screwed to wooden seat box in Augustus. Then the fixing of the slew drive to the slew gear box! After some cleaning up and grease we assembled, although concerned we could see a non part moving in a way we thought it shouldn’t.
Any way we assembled and trialled it out. Little movement by drive but boom started to slew to starboard and no control on return. Quickly tied boom up and disassembled again. We tried to see if we had assembled the claw out of engagement. Tried her again and clearly not right. Dusk was approaching in half an hour. I questioned what 2 little grub screws are for. So it kept us working and we unscrewed these with little effort. We then thought these were very clever locking devices causing the bush to lock to shaft. None of us had ever seen this type of engineering before. We tightened these allen screws and everything locked in place.
We assembled again, oh yes with new bolts, nuts and spring washers hold the drive to the gear section. Success and sunset approached. Now had to get Augustus back to the pound. Bow hauling.Augustus’ flood lights came into practice
John will very carefully trial her on Wednesday and then return her to Ebley. I am going to draw up a maintenance chart that covers all oiling/ greasing/ nut and bolt checking with time intervals and laminate so always in cabin. All Augustus operators will get a full one to one update from me to ensure everyone learns from our experience and will have a better idea about how things should work..
Finally the sight glass can only be seen with mirror or the modern way with mobile camera using the reversing image technique. Note we’ve filled to just below top of window. There should only be a need to refill if near bottom of the window.
Today as previous days were very successful and a lot was learnt about its workings and myself and John as trainers will ensure all trainees know what we’ve learnt as it will hopefully ensure this doesn’t happen again. Thanks again to all, John and I are very confident we will have Augustus working as normal. A very worthwhile experience. No celebrations until finally tested.
