Howdy,
Well I really did it this time, I was attempting to break in my brand new Cox Texaco, end result --> something is binding internally. Here's what I did:
When I got the engine I removed the spring starter, intending to use my Sullivan Hornet 1/2A starter-which I did use. Had everything set up properly (I think-second engine and first Cox
): I filled the tank (Powermaster 15%), I primed the cylinder with a drop of fuel and opened the needle valve 3-3.5 turns. I flicked the engine through by hand a couple of times, and then turned the engine back wards until it came up against the compression stroke. I connected the glow starter, then started to turn the engine over with the starter and nothing happened. I turned the engine over for about 10 seconds, then paused, disconnected the glow starter, turned the engine over by hand, hooked things up again and tried again. I must have done that a dozen times.
Frustrated, I took the head off to see if the cylinder was getting fuel, and to check the glow element. The cylinder didn't have any standing fuel, and the glow plug lit up fine. I increased the juice to the glow plug a bit, and added another drop of fuel to the cylinder. Put it back together and tried again-still nothing.
About this time I noticed little specks of silver/gray liquid around where the prop drive plate and the crankcase meet. I figured this was normal, it was break in after all and the presence of liquid indicated that fuel was getting in there and lubing everything. So I kept going, in 10 sec intervals.
All of the sudden-wham! The silicon insert flew out of the starter cone, and the prop stopped suddenly. I disconnected the glow clip, and tried to turn the thing over by hand, but there was a lot of resistance. Fearing hydraulic lock I took the head off, but it looked the same as it always had, just damp-a very light trace of fuel in the cylinder. With the head off the engine still wouldn't turn over without a lot of resistance-so I didn't turn it through very far-just enough to determine that the piston was connected to the crank still.
What did I do? Was I a flaming idiot to use the electric starter? I haven't torn the thing apart yet-but I can't see as how I'm going to get out of this mess without spending
more money. It kinda seems to me that the bearing must have seized or something. But I don't know, what do you think? I know how to take the major assemblies apart, but how do you pull the crankshaft? If I bent a rod, how would I go about removing the rod from the ball joint? I've got a Baby Bombshell one week of devoted labor away from flying and this is the start of spring break-help me please! Thanks for the input guys!
Derek