Old Buffalo forge blower seal help

Plumbers also use a thin rope-like stuff impregnated with graphite and some sort of grease. They used it to pack around valve stems. Sounds like you have a very similar application.

Pete Stanaitis

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charles wrote:

How much slop are we talking about here? If it's under about .020", then Permatex #2 should seal it up. I assume that there is no relative movement, ie an exposed rotating member, in this joint. Get everything CLEAN and dry, lay a thick bead, then assemble the parts and allow to 'set up' overnight before filling with oil. I can't count the engines I've permtexed together, never had any leaks, even with 60+ pounds of pressure differential across the seals. Hope this helps.

Charly

I can't count the engines I've permtexed together, never had

************* The impeller shaft (1/2") rides in a 'snout' on an approx 3" long bearing surface. No seals. This assembly screws into the impeller side of the gear housing. This housing in turn has a cylinder to accept the 'snout' very loosely. My plan is to pack the area between the end of the 'snout' housing and the gear housing cylinder end. I think even maybe felt washers made from old snow boots may do the trick.. especially w/Permatex. There is only 1-1/4" vertical distance between the bottom of the gear housing and the bottom of the impeller shaft. So any oil above that line would be able to leak into the scroll cage, unless some seal is maintained. I would imagine one would want at least 3" oil (90 weight gear lube) in the gear housing. thanks..

Hmmmm -- I recall I got quite adequate lubrication on my old Champions, Buffalos, etc, with just enough oil (30W) in the gearbox that it was an inch or so above the extreme lower part of the largest gear. All you should need is enough bearing to keep the fan (output) shaft gear aligned with its driver and enough seal just to keep the oil from dripping out around it.

Most older gearboxes just used the oil that the gears naturally carry with them as they turn. The fast rotation of the smaller gears throws excess oil off where it drains back into the bottom of the case. I worked on many split-case, single-reduction (or in the case of blowers, single-increase) gearsets where the amount of oil needed was just a small amount that the gears carried to each other. It doesn't take much oil, just enough to coat the mating surfaces reliably.

Watch out for 90W, it gets really stiff when cold. DAMHIKT! :)

Thanks, that sets my mind at ease. I figured only enough oil was needed to fill the case up to below the bottom of the impeller shaft. The oil residue that remained in the case was very heavy, that's why I suspected gear lube and planned on using 90 weigth. I don't see how using 30W would hurt one bit.

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While I'm thinking about it:

Look for a fixed washer (with a collar and setscrew maybe) on the output shaft just inside the case on the fan side. This thing is called a slinger washer -- because it's fast rotation "slings" the oil off the shaft and back into the case. If the shaft penetrates the opposite side of the case, there'll be one there too.

Many old gearboxes used these rather than, or along with, an oil seal as such and very little oil got out of the case.

Oil will tend to "crawl" anywhere it can reach. The builders of these old gearboxes used that quality to advantage.