Need ingenious solution??!!

[DianneB]

The crosshead pumps on my L.E. American are tucked in tight between the crosshead guides and the frame. The "packing gland" is a hex nut (much like the nut on a copper tube compression fitting) and access for adjustment is very limited from above and only slightly better from below. They are incredible difficult to tighten! I have even made custom wrenches from flat iron but it still almost impossible to tighten these gland nuts!!! There isn't enough space to use any kind of socket.

I have thought about drilling blind holes in the flats of the hex and making some kind of spanner but still the limited access would be a problem.

I have considered milling a very shallow channel in an X shape across the head of the glad nut and making a "wrench" that would slide in along the ram (where there is more space) but don't know if that would work either.

The Little Engines American has been around for a LONG time so someone somewhere must have solved this problem before!

HELP!

[Marty_Knox]

Get rid of the packing. Put a single O ring on the ram.

[rkcarguy]

Is there enough meat on the nut to mill a smaller hex on it, so it looks like a flange nut? Then you could slot a 12 point socket so it would fit over the shaft and be able to adjust it that way?

[Bill Shields]

An old British trick is to cut slots across the flats (along the pump axis) so that you can reach in with the end of a flat screwdriver and push tangentially to snug up.

Crude but effective...

[shayloco]

I agree with Marty. Use an o-ring and forget about it. I don’t use packing anymore. When I do a rebuild or a repair I install o-rings.

[STRR]

Dianne,

This is a link to ratcheting tubing wrenches. They are an open end, ratchet wrench.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/8mm-to-19mm-Tu ... KEMy7HRTmA

I hope the link works. I don't know what size you need or how much throw room you have, but these might be able to slip onto the shaft & nut, then be able to tighten by the ratchet action.

There are also no moving parts ratchet open end wrenches. These have odd teeth cut into the open end wrench. When you move the wrench one way, the wrench slips past the flats on the fitting or nut. When you tighten, the flat parts of the wrench bite the fitting or nut and tighten. Again, throw distance for the ratchet action will be critical.

Good Luck,
Terry

[DianneB]

Thanks Terry but I have NO space on either side of the nut.

I like the idea of O-rings. The nest time I have a problem, I will go with O-rings.

I had used an O-ring under the packing nut last winter but that failed on Sunday. I replaced that with graphite packing today but it took 5-1/2 hours to do the left side! I have to dismantle most of the crosshead guides to get at the pump!

I have been using O-rings as piston rings for the last few years and they work great (as long as I don't move the engine when it is -30C LOL!) Next time around, the crosshead pumps will get O-rings!

Thanks gang!

[hoppercar]

on my american, i made my own crossheads, and put the pump on the outside so they are more accesable

[LVRR2095]

Lose the crosshead pumps altogether. Get a steam pump and injector or two injectors.
There is a reason that the railroads got rid of the things.
Keith