Today, Samantha (My Wonderful, Fantastic, and Amazing Girlfriend) and I thought it was about time to start tackling the installation of the new steam chest cover. We stripped off the old three piece homemade copper engine cover, exhaust plumbing, pump drive, pump linkage, and engine cover. It was messy work but we got it down with only a minimal steam oil slick on the ground. We got the top of the new Steam chest cover top in place ad it looks like it should fit nicely. We'll need to enlarge the steam inlet hole slightly but that is expected given the condition of the pattern. Once the insulation arrives we'll get it all fitted up for the road.
Blog
A blog about my the history, acquisition and operation of my 1911 Model 62 Stanley Steamer.
It was the piston
Alright after a discussion with Pat and further investigation we figured out that the noise was the front drivers side piston hitting the threaded plugin the steam chest. This is not a good thing. Luckily we caught this issue immediately so it didn't cause major damage. We managed to tighten the piston back onto the rod and peen over the threads so hopefully this won't be happening again anytime soon.
This is not exactly the type of stuff I like to be doing two days prior to a big tour...
