Kit 2 Lubrication

Would be interested to know whether any of you who are well ahead noticed that there is no lubrication points for either the axle pivot or main perch swivel joint. I was pondering putting a grease nipple in and possibly machining a shallow grove to spread the grease or oil about.

Anyone else had simmilar thoughts or done something. I know the movement is not great but it goes against the grain to have no lubrication other than the intial assembly grease. Particularly the main swivel as being so close to the smokebox it will soon loose its grease.

Cheers
Simon

Hello Simon,

The initial assembly had plenty of grease; however,the access hole at the rear of the perch is always a good start (if using a grease gun), otherwise I did not give it another thought .

Cheers,

Brian

As you can see I have fitted a grease nipple so that it is accessable throught the oil slot. I made a groove in the casting to let the grease flow around the pin. On the full size engine I understand that oil is put in here for lubrication. Because there is a raised collar I figured that most of the oil would sit around the bottom of the casting doing nothing. Very easy mod to do, note the 'R' clips just in case I want to remove the front axle they would be easy to remove through the hole. (easier than split pins anyway!)

Thanks Steve, I am glad I was not the only one thinking along those lines. The R clip is a great idea, will use one instead.

A couple of suplementary questions come to mind -

1. The groove did you cut that in the perch or the swivel pin itself?

2. Did you just dril a hole laterally to get grease on to the upright section of the bearing? I was thinking of joining the lateral one with a vertical one down to the flat section of the bearing.

3. Did you do anything with the axle swivel pin? I was wondering about drilling a grease passage from the end and then our the the main axle, but wondered if that was overkill?

With best wishes
Simon

I cut a groove horizontally around the inner face of the perch bracket to let the grease flow all the way around the pin. I did this with a cutting disk in a dremel, mark a line first so you have something to follow. My lathe isn't big enough to mount the perch bracket on it. I didn't do a vertical hole down to the collar but it's probably not a bad idea. The axle pin has had no mods, in reality the odd drop of oil is enough to keep it free as it doesn't move much.

Thanks Steve,

I think that is the plan, then, rely on oil squirted in for the axle pin and the two way feed for the grease nipple. I too thought I would use the dremmel.

With best wishes
Simon