SOLVED: Sight Glass water drops during running

[Dale_F]

I have a LE Mogul with a new sight glass from LocoParts. Glass has no obstructions and can easily blow down after closing the top or bottom valves. When sitting still the glass measures correctly. When running however, the water in the glass drops - pretty much out of the glass. I add water with pump and injector and the boiler can get so much water it blows out the stack, so I know I am not low on water, even tho it shows no water in the glass. As soon as I stop, gauge reads correctly. And for those thinking "OMG" - I do not run more than a VERY short distance with this problem. I need to get this resolved before running more than a few hundred feet at a time. I do NOT want to damage the boiler.

Where can I start looking? Thanks in advance for the helpful answers this forum always provides.

Dale F

[cbrew]

this sounds like a problem with how the glass is plumbed. how is the glass connected to the boiler? does it have its know connections well away from other draw points (turret, throttle, etc.)?

[Tom Miller]

Sounds like the glass is not plumbed directly to the boiler. Be sure the glass is not plumbed to the turret.
Tom

[Dale_F]

The glass lower fitting is directly into the beack of the boiler, the top of the glass is piped directly into the top of the boiler. The sight glass is not plumbed with anything else. That is what makes this so curious.

[FLSTEAM]

By any chance have you removed the sight glass and it's plumbing to see if there might be some kind of obstruction?

John B.

[cbrew]

Dale, Do you know how far the fitting enters into the water space? I have heard of issues is the fitting is too close to the other sheet causing a venturi effect as water is turned to steam which i can see drawing the water out of the glass.

[Dale_F]

The hole in the top of the boiler has lots of open space below. It is longer than the shaft of a screw driver that happened to be close by.

The hole in the back of the boiler is less scientific because I did not remove the fitting in the boiler. I measuered by running a small wire in the hole feeling for the end of the fitting that goes thru the boiler, and then measuing from there to the first solid obstruction (which I assume is the fire box wall). My guess is I am looking at probably a little over 1/8" clearance - but maybe as much as 1/4".

Do I pull the fitting and make it shorter so there is more clearance ?? Is that the consensus? Any idea of the preferred clearance??

Thanks again for all the answers.

Dale.

[cbrew]

what i would do with the bottom fitting, it mark it with a sharpy or paint where the fitting meets the shell wall, remove the fitting and measure from that mark to the end that was inside the boiler,
Then measure the thicken of the wall.


then measure the depth from the outside well to the inter wall.
depending how much space is between the end of the fitting and the inner wall, I would shorten the fitting to be just longer the the wall thicken.

it would probably be fine of the fitting ended between 25 and 50 % of the opening between the sheets

I hope i am being clear enough
if not i can draw it up and post it.

[Dale_F]

That makes perfect sense. I will pull the fitting later this afternoon and make measurements and adjustments.

I know this will cause an uproar, but it is just too cold in the garage to go out and work now. Heck, it is down to 49 here in Northern California this afternoon!

Thanks for all the advice. I will let you know how the changed fitting works.

[cbrew]

That makes perfect sense. I will pull the fitting later this afternoon and make measurements and adjustments.

I know this will cause an uproar, but it is just too cold in the garage to go out and work now. Heck, it is down to 49 here in Northern California this afternoon!

Thanks for all the advice. I will let you know how the changed fitting works.

haha,,, its 29 here in the portland or area as i type this,,,, its cold for us

[lrdg2150]

ROAR. 14 in Flagstaff -5 ish tonight.
John

[Fred_V]

how old is the boiler? I've seen this condition show up when the water legs get plugged with rust.