WHAT DID YOU DO IN YOUR SHOP TODAY

O ring installer tool

Picked up this Kent Moore fixture for building the Frigidaire A-6 A/C compressors. The A-6 is a cold war work of art. It uses only O rings to seal (no gaskets) and is so over built. To build one successfully, the internal tolerances are to be held to .0005"! to achieve that the thrust bearing seat and the piston shoe are selective fit. The fixture allows to assemble the rotating member halves and compress them together like they would be in the compressor to check the end clearance on the thrust bearings.
The "rebuilt" one I took apart had close to .030" end play, the spec is .0005" interference fit! No surprise it failed to hold a shaft seal or failed in 2 years!
The fixture also allows you to run up the rotating member to look for noise problems before installing the assembly into the case.
Also picked up the O ring installation tool for the shaft seal. This tool is not included in most aftermarket compressor servicing tool kits, while not necessary, it does make it quicker and easier. Be careful when buying however, there are two pieces to the tool and many are missing the smaller part.

Kent Moore is another way to spell expensive. All of the Detroit Diesel tools, at work, were KM.
I found the pictured KM tool in a pawn shop. I know what it is. What is your best guess?

I think you told me it was a piston pin installer for a Detroit.

K-M along with OTC supplied most of the American car mfg special tools. Since it was a "captive" market for the 1st several years, they charged accordingly. Once something made it to the aftermarket it was only the most used tooling that got copied. The build fixtures and such were rarely available in "blue point" or other tool mfg.
If you know the K-M or OTC number for the tools you want, they show up on E bay with a fair regularity.

To be absolutely correct, it is a piston wrist pin seal installer.
My ex-employer was selling a bunch of Kent Moore tooling for the Silver 6V92. I saw the stuff on a Government auction. A new 6V92 sold for less than $5000. There was a bunch of those OTC diagnostic units, complete with the cassettes and adapters. The diagnostic meters were only a few hundred dollars when new. It was the protocol cassettes that cost around $1000 each.
At one time, every engine was a Detroit 6V71 or 6V92. I was told all but one of the nearly 2000 vehicles are Cummins. Only one 6V92 Silver remains. There is one stationary 6V71 left, with a hydraulic drive to power one of the two transmission dynos.
The parking areas have cleaned up. In the bad old days, the DD would leak oil and coolant and attract dust. There was an oily mud build-up that had to be manually cleaned up every so often.

Got back to the A-6 compressor. Two halves of the main body are not mated tight to each other. Buttrd up tight on one side but a gap on the other.
Closer inspection reveals that the "cross over tube" was epoxied in place (supposed to be a press fit) and it was holding the halves apart.
Removed the pistons and balls and re assembled the case halves with just the shaft and bearing in place. Got the endplay down to .010", still not good enough! Inspection of the thrust washers shows wear on all. The washers on the case side ride on the inner edge of the washer, the washers on the wobble plate end ride on the outer edge. By flip-flopping the positions I was able to provide a fresh face for the washer to ride on. When this was done, there was no readable end play but still below the .0005" interference fit it calls for. It is about the best I could hope for without a supply of new washer in an assortment of thicknesses, as good as I'll get it.
I re fit the pistons and ball-shoes. One was at the spec of .0005" interference but the other two had a little play. Not enough to cause a problem or anywhere near enough to worry about the shoes dropping out. Should work ok, but might be a little noisy. The compressor I got from the west coast, you can't even hear when it is engaged, it is that quiet.
Having the fixture allow the halves to be assembled and torqued together so measurements can be checked. Without the fixture it is hard to find a way to evenly compress the halve together, and if you do, hard to gain access to make the measurements.
The hard work is done, I need to paint the case and are-assemble the guts into the case and seal it up, install a new clutch and seal it up until it is needed.

so much detail, I fell asleep.

so much detail, I fell asleep.

Glad to be of help

I had originally set my SAMSUNG to open with fingerprint recognition. This worked about 50% of the time. Last night I reset the phone for facial recognition. So far, this has worked 100%.
I happened to be in the shop when, with my son's help, I made the change.
I am 75 this year. I was thinking back to the different telephones I remember. Our first phone ring was two long rings and two short rings in the 1940s. The phone was a wood wall unit with a crank and hand held ear piece.
The next phone, when we moved to town in 1955, was a turquoise plastic wall unit in. The number was 283.
In 1960 we moved to Calgary and the number changed to Alpine XXXX then to 252 XXXX. Long distance calls were through the telephone company operator.
MY first cell phone was a MOTOROLA Brick followed by a few Blackberry phones.
I have free calling, in Canada, on my cell. Anywhere in North America, is free, on the home phone. My wife calls Germany for free on the home phone.
I cannot remember the other family cell numbers, so I rely on my cell smart phone.
I used my cell phone to take 22,000 pictures while I was building my 1940 Ford.
Dad died in 1989. He liked all technology. I am sure he would have had a smartphone. Dad would have been 103 this year.
68467

We often spoke of my Grandfather, born in early 1901, as seeing the maximum possible changes to life as we know it. From horses and buggies to jet airplanes.

I'm not sure now, when you look back on the changes we've experienced in the 23 years since he has been gone.