Mamod sight glass repair

As I've mentioned before my SR1A had a leaky sight glass in the boiler. Repair kits are readily available from several sources, and usually comprise of a pair of self sealing copper rivets, a couple of screws (for those engines where the sight glass is screwed in place), a new perspex glass and a rubber seal.

This is the old glass, note how cloudy it is;

I drilled out the old rivets to release the brass surround;

Then I refitted the surround with the new glass and seal in place. This was a bit tricky as I had to hold all the parts in place whilst riveting the surround (using a nifty new Sealey pop rivet gun), I ended up with the engine being held between my legs whilst sat in a chair. I also gave the surround a quick polish;

I've also bought a new aftermarket meths burner;

So of course I had to fire it up;

It runs quite well, although I did need to fit a new O ring on the safety valve top. The meths burner doesn't fit in place as well as the old solid fuel job, possibly because it's thinner, which is a bit of a shame as it can move around more. I'll try driving it along the ground next.

Paul.