Traxcavator 955 12A – polishing the crank & rod journals

My dear daughter Andrea offered to polish off the aluminum residue on the crank & rod journals for me. She used a length of fine abrasive cloth and pulled it up & down – cleaning it up very nicely. (see picture)

She also came up with the great idea of putting a foam ear plug in the oil hole to keep the dirt & grit out. (see picture)

(I thought that was a fantastic idea)

Reggie the Dachshund also helped but before the project was finished it was meal time – so he went looking for the food dish. (see picture)
.

If that's the polished product it looks way to rough to me. Compare that to one of the undamaged journals.
Good idea on the ear plugs:)

Gotta agree w/Old Magnet, there, Bill-that journal appears to be a long way from being able to hold a bearing...The advice about muriatic acid to get the aluminum off is good-any Al left at all will grab that new bearing like glue...
My compliments to Andrea-anyone, male or female, willing to do that job is OK in my book...I laid under a HD21 AC for what seemed like half my life at the time, polishing water marks off all 13 journals after it sat open for a few months...
What I've found to work is turning the crank in 1/3-turn increments, it seems to give good coverage w/enough overlap to keep from forming lobes. After a piece of abrasive is almost worn out, save it for the finish cut...
Ron in CO...

Oh no, that's BEFORE we polished I'll get a finished pic tomorrow.

Bill,
Did you ever find a home for that 1/8 in dia. pin you found in the sump?
Can you tell if it is a straight pin or tapered?

Stupid comment, just don't forget to remove the ear plug. Keep track of it as if it were nuclear secrets.

If you were doing several journals, I would use the same one over and over, just to know that there wasn't a stray one, floating around, because you lost track of it.

When I would use a cotter key to roll the top half of the bearing insert in, I would use only one cotter key.

I may be overly anal, but it keeps things from being lost.

It,s a very touchy situation to just half clean up things and clean out just some areas. I have seen over the years lots of engines destroyed coming into the Cat dealer I worked for like yours and the only best way is remove the engine and go through every part of it where oil runs through.The oil pump and filtering system and wherever oil travels for lubrication for things can get hurt by pieces of the metal.I just hope things your doing takes care of the problem but it,s a big ??????. Best of luck with it Bill.

It will be messy, but I would flush that crankshaft like I hadn't used the ear plug before I called it done!

The plug is a great idea, and I would say use a new one in each hole so you don't push grit down the hole reusing the same one, just count them up at the end. Surgeons are supposed to account for every sponge used in a surgical pack so they don't leave one in when they close. I would do the same. That along with some serious flushing with kerosene or diesel and rifle bore brushes would make me feel a lot better about the whole process.

I got bitten by a contaminated crankshaft a few years ago. We paid a crankshaft cleaning fee, itemized on the bill for grinding the crank, but it still had foreign matter in it that ruined a bearing within a very few hours after reassembly. I got nothing from the machine shop on the regrind and new set of bearings. Once bitten, twice shy including not using that shop anymore.

Your daughters are amazing young women. One of mine is really interested in the cows, but none so far interested in machinery.

Old Magnet wrote:

“Bill,
Did you ever find a home for that 1/8 in dia. pin you found in the sump?
Can you tell if it is a straight pin or tapered?”

Reply:

Yes, it turned out to be the pin from the collar that holds the drive gear for the balancer.
No damage done. I'll just re-pin it and make a new shim washer to suit. I also found the shim washer torn-up in the pan.



Art From De Leon wrote:

Stupid comment, just don't forget to remove the ear plug. Keep track of it as if it were nuclear secrets.

Reply:
Thank you, thank you! You are correct about that – I’ll guard it. Funny story about that sort of thing… I had a dream that I put it all back together and forgot to replace the brass shear pin on the oil pump.



ccjersey & SJ.
Any ideas about flushing the crank oil passages while it’s in the machine?

I’m thinking – since no oil was flowing, the aluminum particles didn’t get too far. There isn’t a lot of stuff visible in the oil holes – not full of chips etc.

Here is a picture of the worst journal after daughter Andrea did a partial polish on it. Still some aluminu on it - but look at the nice original finish. Tomorrow I'll try some muractic acid on it. It's really in pretty good shape.
.

Bill,
May I assume that you will be using crocus cloth for your final finish on the journals? When I worked in the auto parts business in the early 60's, the machinist had a polisher he used on the cranks after grinding, that held a long belt of crocus cloth, that was held against the journals as the crank turned in the crank grinder

Ed
Oscar's master, as in Oscar Mayer weiner dog.