Garden Railway Forum

I finally fitted my gas burner to my Mamod today and boy what a difference.

However the one hope I had was that it would sort out the stop/start running I've had since new cylinders were fitted. I got a few ideas to my last post on this problem but when it comes to repairs and work on steam locos I'm a bit of a newbie.

Anyway can anyone provide me a step by step guide to stripping down the cylinders? -steves- recommended looking at the springs to ease them a bit, but I'm at a loss to know where to begin? Also my cack handed tinkering has led to a leak on the left hand cylinder near where the piston in, so I'm wary of doing anything else until I have an inlking of what I'm doing  :oops:

The leak sprung from the join of the face to the cylinder below, think it had something to do with me mucking about with the bolt  :oops:

Lovely station building you are putting together.  :D

Sorry thats nothing to do with sorting cylinders though !

Lapping the surfaces on fine wet n dry paper on a piece of glass may help though if they are new you should not really need to do that.

If the cylinders are new from Dream steam it is quite possible they will need lapping. When I got mine the surfaces were very rough. Steves is right about the springs, they are far too strong for running in. I've found that the standard springs were strong enough to keep the faces steam tight while letting them bed in. The leak you mention is the cylinder end cap about to come out. The endcaps are glued and they do fall out after a little while as there is a lot of force being put on that join to make the cylinder wobble. This weakens the glue which is quite brittle leaving the end cap free to fall out. I have re glued mine using Unibond extreme after degreasing both parts. If you can't get anywhere send me a PM

Thanks Dan, so the springs are they the ones you can see on the picture (centre of the face of the lower cylinder for example). I presume they pull the cylinder to the plate do they? I'm probably using all the wrong terms and sounding a bit clueless, but I didn't fit the cylinders (got a professional to do that) so am wanting to get the info clear before tinkering!

Thanks for the info on the end caps, I presume they just pop off do they? Maybe with a bit of a wiggle to break the remaining glue?

The springs do pull the cylinder against the plate. It is very simple to change the springs to the softer ones. as only that bol need be undone. It is easier while the cylinders are off th engine but it is possible with a little patience to change them on the engine. You may notice the softer springs let a little steam past. If the end of the cylinder is still on leave it that way, they are difficult to get back on. If you do get seriously stuck let me know.