Flywheel fitting

I am in the process of fitting the flywheel and am interested in others experience. When I fit mine on to the crank it is an easy sliding fit with no persuasion needed. I might have expected it to be tighter. When it is on the crank shaft without the key there is a small amount of wobble.

what has been the experience of others?

With best wishes
Simon

Mine slides on easily, cant say about the wobble, never tried. Once the key is in and a tight fit ( by shimming if nessecary ) it has no issues at all.

I have also managed to easliy slide the flywheel on, with the key pushed in about 3/4 of the way, there is a slight amount of slack whilst spinning the crankshaft. As I still need to take it off to fit the gear guard and finish the winch I have not tried it with the key knocked fully home, but think it will be tight

Thanks chaps

best wishes
Simon

Well I have now fully inserted the key and there is still a slight movement of the flywheel on the shaft. There is still a small movement between the key and the crankshaft. If I can get the key out a think knocking the bottom of the key with a centre pop may expand the key enough to take up the slight slack. Certainly not enough to shim .

Ian

I would get some engineers blue and see what the fit of the key is like first. May just have a high spot.

I certainly wouldn't centre pop the bottom, you want a good 80% contact of the key to make sure it stays tight.

Despite my best endeavours with shims and the like, the flywheel key and hence flywheel tends to work loose on Frederick, especially after generating on the belt and a rough road run.  It's important that the key is not driven fully home, leaving space for an extraction wedge to drive it out.

I will be making a brass end cap to solve the problem today.  There was a thread on traction talk recently on securing flywheels:
http://www.tractiontalkforum.com/showthread.php?t=12132.

Tim

If the key is going in right up to the head, the best option is to make a new key which fits correctly and tried with engineers marking blue, could be seen as a pain in the a----, but the only way to ensure a good fit. If the flywheel is not quite a light push fit then Loctite retaining compound could be used.

http://www.loctite.co.uk/retaining-4479.htm

I would be very wary of using retaining compound on the flywheel as I have had to remove it quite a few times for access and maintenance.

Tim

I have not driven the key flush to the flywheel as i had thought it may need to come off and wanted to leave space for a wedge to help remove. The key is tight in the flywheel slot but has a slight amount of movement in the crankshaft slot, I have tried to measure with a feeler guage and it is less than 2 thou, at the rim of the flywheel there is 1mm movement which feels a lot.

I have made and fitted the brass end cap.  Quite a simple job, held in place with a 0BA bolt tapped into the end of the crankshaft.  


It also makes the shaft end look much neater and is another bit of brass to polish!



I would go so far as to say that this is a 'must-have' fitting for Tony & Shane!

Tim

Absolutely excellent Tim, I thourouly approve!!


Regards,
Tony

Looks great.i will definitely have one on starlight express.

Hi All,

The key supplied by STW was always a poor fit, so I had a Gib-Head key made by Live Steam Models (£20). This difference between the two keys are massive.

Now the session is coming to an end the key will be filed to size and knocked in to place. Luckily, I have the support of an engineer who has just completed the restoration of his full size engine to help with the filing

ATB,

Brian