Blog

A blog about my the history, acquisition and operation of my 1911 Model 62 Stanley Steamer.

A bad seal.

 Sometimes success is bitter sweet. Today we went to start the Stanley from cold for a second time. When cycling the main burner on I noticed a lot of vapor coming out from the base of the boiler. I had noticed the vapor on the initial startup but assumed it was water vapor coming off the insulation in the burner pan. On the second startup I was not quite as convinced.  My suspicions of this being vapor was confirmed when the boiler reached 150 PSI and we got a nice sized tube fire.

 Upon inspection of the burner, looking for leaks, I couldn’t find any sources that would produce the volume of vapor I was getting. I had made a great attempt to seal the burner with fiber frax but it seemed that I must have overlooked something. I decided a call to Pat Farrell was in order to see if he could provide some insight as to what might be happening.

 Pat quickly sorted the issue out to being a lack of a burner rope seal.  Unfortunately I was unaware that there needed to be an actual seal when you were running an outer burner pan that overlaps the outside diameter of the boiler.  The outcome of all this is that the burner needs to come back out so that the seal can be installed.

The New Branch Forks.

I had originally thought that I would be able to using my old branch forks and just re-bend the tubes so they would line up. Once the burner was assembled it became clear that this was not the case. I opted to stay with the curve tube design mainly because of it's elegance. These forks are a copy of what was on the vehicle when I got it. They are constructed out of a 5/8" Stainless Steel tube with a plug in welded in one end and a Hydraulic flare nut on the other to attach it to the main vaporizer. The forks are 5/16 Stainless Tube that have been curved with the ends threaded to accept the nozzles. Oddly, they were easier to construct then you think.  

Peep Hole Construction

 The burner peep hole is the small door above the mixing tubes. It allows you to view the main and pilot burners as well as allowing you access to light the pilot when starting the car.

  It is imperative that peep hole seals when it is shut so that fire doesn't escape and light off the branch forks thus causing a tube fire which can crack the burner grate. I decided to construct the peep hole out of a piece of pipe. Cutting a slot half way thru to allow the door to slide open and shut while retaining excellent support. The tube was welded into the burner pan creating a passage through the insulation to the inner liner.   

New Baker Burner

I just received notice from Alan Kelso that my new burner is done and will be shipping out shortly! The cast burner assembly should be a noticeable improvement from the ottoway unit I was previously using.