seeing red!!!

[vmaxx4]

One of my Diablo's had been sitting with the gas cap removed when I bought it. The squirrels had been storing food in it.
...Mark.

[Barrie2777]

My five tanks were now dry and clean. I purchased a "gas tank sealer" from CASWELL for about $60 including shippping. There was supposed to be enough to coat two five gallon tanks so I figured to be safe with doing four of the five tanks for a cost of $15 each. This was a two part epoxy mixture. Very economical compared to places that specialize in this process. CASWELL instructions describe "swilling" the mixture around in the tank to get an even coating. When I open the containers, the liquid was like molasses! (swill it???) Epoxies generate heat when mixed in larger quantities and become very liquid, so assuming this was what would happen I preceeded to mix the two liquids......no heat generated and it remained thick. Still stirring, I placed my container on the forced air heat vent to warm it up and hopefully become thinner......no luck. I plugged in my hot plate and stirred it on there. Here I was worried about a "flash point" and causing premature hardening. Still no thinner but I had to get it in the tanks. I poured 1/4 of the mixture in each of four tanks and slowly rotated the tanks for the "molasses mixture" to flow over the interior surfaces. There was no swilling, not even close but the mixture did flow and coat the inside (by what I could see through the filler neck). The rustiest tank I had, let the mixture flow out through a couple pin holes which I had not seen ( this was good). I left the tanks for several days and found that the coating had dried hard and clear like glass. All tanks have been holding gas without leaking but could not do this before the application of the sealer. Most of them were leaking around the end seams. Despite my worrysome experience with this "molasses" mixture, it seems to have done the job. I plan to contact CASWELL about my experience and will update here on this forum.

[vmaxx4]

My five tanks were now dry and clean. I purchased a "gas tank sealer" from CASWELL for about $60 including shippping. There was supposed to be enough to coat two five gallon tanks so I figured to be safe with doing four of the five tanks for a cost of $15 each. This was a two part epoxy mixture. Very economical compared to places that specialize in this process. CASWELL instructions describe "swilling" the mixture around in the tank to get an even coating. When I open the containers, the liquid was like molasses! (swill it???) Epoxies generate heat when mixed in larger quantities and become very liquid, so assuming this was what would happen I preceeded to mix the two liquids......no heat generated and it remained thick. Still stirring, I placed my container on the forced air heat vent to warm it up and hopefully become thinner......no luck. I plugged in my hot plate and stirred it on there. Here I was worried about a "flash point" and causing premature hardening. Still no thinner but I had to get it in the tanks. I poured 1/4 of the mixture in each of four tanks and slowly rotated the tanks for the "molasses mixture" to flow over the interior surfaces. There was no swilling, not even close but the mixture did flow and coat the inside (by what I could see through the filler neck). The rustiest tank I had, let the mixture flow out through a couple pin holes which I had not seen ( this was good). I left the tanks for several days and found that the coating had dried hard and clear like glass. All tanks have been holding gas without leaking but could not do this before the application of the sealer. Most of them were leaking around the end seams. Despite my worrysome experience with this "molasses" mixture, it seems to have done the job. I plan to contact CASWELL about my experience and will update here on this forum.

Barrie

Did you have to do anything about the fuel pickup in the tanks? and where did you order this stuff from?

....Mark.

[Go Go Diablo]

Mark,

One place I found is below. Have not tried their product yet, but it looks good.

Bruce

kbs-coatings.com

[Barrie2777]

The gas tank sealer I bought came from http://www.caswellcanada.ca CASWELL has a US equilivent.

Did you have to do anything about the fuel pickup in the tanks? and where did you order this stuff from?
The fuel pick up was plugged with putty to prevent the mixture from running out. When it was thorughly hard, I drilled it out with a 3/16" twist drill.




My 500 is together so I gave the pull cord a few yanks....no SPARK!!!!!!!!! Great compression though, just about torn off my arm on the first pull. I changed the plug, checked the plug wire for continuity, removed the flywheel and adjusted the points, replaced the flywheel pulled again...no SPARK!!!!!! removed the recoil, removed the flywheel removed the stator plate and exchanged it with one that I knew worked before I took that engine apart to replace the crank seals (remember the one with the water in it)replaced all those pieces again, pulled ....no SPARK!!!!! removed all those parts again ( I can now do this in a power failure in the dark of night) checked all connections, cleaned the points checked for bad grounds all over the machine between anything and everything, replaced all those parts again, preyed, pulled the recoil...no SPARK!!!!!! My knees are sore now either from getting up and down or from preying...still no spark!!! I've only lost one lock washer, skinned my knuckles once, run the battery dead on my tester, drained my LED work light, stretched the ligaments in my shoulder and still no SPARK!!!! Good news is that the flywheel puller I had made works great. Anyone out there with a solution? Much longer and this machine will be at the end of the drive with a "Take it away" sign on it.

[Barrie2777]

Okey..I made the sign but wanted one more pull on that recoil but I changed the plug again and pulled....SPARK!! YIKES!!! it wasn't even sunday otherwise I would have thought there was some divine intervention. Pulled again...SPARK. must be real. I connected the three wires coming from within the engine casing to the connector block on top of the engine and pulled ...NO SPARK!!!!!! AH HA!! turns out that the connector block had two terminals which were grounding the spark. I can't explain why there was no spark yesterday because those wires were not connected nor can I explain why the connector block was grounding the engine. Onward we march....

[Rock]

HUS-SKI FOR EVER

[Barrie2777]

Last week I was saying Go! Go! Diablo Go! #@##!?* now I'm saying it goes!! I was able to start the beast and have it idle. Purring like a kitten isn't exactly a good description because every time it fires , the shock wave reverberates through the ground and shakes my house. I felt like I was sitting front stage in front of the bass drum. I should check for cracks in the chimney and my eardrums. When I get it outside, I'll probably wake everyone within a mile. This certainly isn't the machine I'll take to sneek up on wildlife. Maybe a ride in Chalk River???? It'll blend in with the mortars being fired at CFB Petawawa. As I reflect on the electrical problem I had and try to determine why, I can only conclude that tthe three wires from the engine were touching each other so I safely stuck the black one into the connector block to ensure that it was isolated from the others and the engine block. The remaining four engines should be a snap.

[Barrie2777]

After Bruce's post about boggie refurbishing I figure it to be a good time to submit this photo. Sandblasting all these boggie stations was the task I was fearing the most. Perhaps if I had done the math at the begining of my restoration, I would have reconcidered doing four machines at once. This parade of boggie stations is over twenty (20) feet long! The rubber wheels have been cleaned and coated with "Armoral Rubber Tire Shine".

[Go Go Diablo]

That is awesome. The bogies are one of the most teediest parts of a restoration. Removing tires, sandblasting, installing zerks, adding weld to the tubes, painting, refurbishing the bumpers, reinstalling the wheels, lubrication........... Yikes. You must seeing bogie wheels in your sleep.

Thanks for sharing the pics. Like that box of tires.