The 1899 Locomobile Steam Car Replica, known as the Lykamobile is a full scale live steam automobile manufactured in 24 kits. This kit is available from a company called "Steam Traction World" located in Daventry, United Kingdom. Each kit is to be manufactured and sent once a month for 24 months. However for cost considerations I have chosen to have my kits batched and dispatched in larger crates to the United States (Topsail Beach, NC).

Specifications:
• Length 7ft 2.6in • Height 5ft 3in • Width 4ft 7.1in • Weight 904 lbs.• Water Tank Capacity 12 Gallons • Fuel Tank Capacity 7.3 Gallons

Construction:

CHASSIS Tubular steel fabrication, combination weld, bolted and silver solder.
STEERING “Ackerman” design tiller steering.
DIFFERENTIAL & DRIVE Spur gear differential similar to the original Locomobile, drive shaft and bearings.
WHEELS & TYRES Single tube pneumatic, treaded.
BREAKING SYSTEM Disc brake system.
ENGINE 21/4" diameter, 3" stroke modified “Hackworth” valve gear.
WATER FEED Twin mechanical pump.
BURNER Fuelled by diesel.
BOILER Multi Fire Tube, fully constructed and complete with necessary paperwork and inspected by notified body.
BODYWORK & SEATS Wooden with steel frame, seating capacity of 2 persons, with turned decorative spindles with leather style upholstery.
Gears: forward and reverse.
Assemble with hand-tools only
Step-by-step instructions
Technical service and help-line backup
Designed on ‘Solidworks’ CAD
Manufactured on modern CNC machines for build accuracy and high quality


Thursday, February 25, 2021

Engine Packing Nut Modification

After steaming the car several times, invariably one of the piston stem rods packing nut will vibrate loose and eventually unscrew to where the piston stem rod guide (slider) bangs against the packing nut. This is not good, and makes a rather load knock too. I have tried various things, like aviation sealant that stays semi-fluid to make the threads "sticky" thereby eliminating the unscrewing of the nut, but because this area becomes rather hot, the sealant liquefies and the nut still rotates loose. So inspired by an old Mason Steam Engine that Locomobile use to use, I am adopting their solution to this problem. First the next image shows the packing nut that I'm referencing.
The next image shows how the Mason Steam Engine stopped their packing nuts from loosening from the vibrations of the engine. The image shows the packing nuts for the valve stems, but they also used the same idea on the piston rods too.
So I decided to create a sheet-metal bracket that would provide tension against the packing nut, but first I needed to file away a radius so that the bracket would sit and align better with the packing nut.
I then unscrewed the M6 hex head cap screw above the filed away radius. This will be where I will attach the sheet-metal bracket. I made a cardboard pattern to prototype my bracket and then transferred this to my sheet-metal to make.

I bent the sheet-metal and brazed some welding rod to the bracket that will interface with the packing nut.
(as a note, the 12 3/4 is the number of full turns on the connecting rod slider block that took to unscrew the slider from the piston stem rod- I wanted to make sure that when I reinstalled the slider it was in the same relative position on the piston stem rod) 
Next I used a hack saw, small flat file and small round file to make grooves between each hole on the packing nut. To get to this packing nut I had to first remove the steam engine from the body to allow better access to all of the parts. I disconnected the connecting rod from the slider, then unscrewed the slider to allow the packing nut to be unscrewed from the piston rod. (I'm getting good at removing the engine - this being about the forth time I have done this).
The next few images shows the bracket and packing nut assembled on the engine. I am hopeful that this will eliminate this issue. My only concern is the gauge of sheet-metal I used. I may have to re-make the bracket out of a heavier gauge - I used 22ga.


This modification really should be done for all future Lykamobile Engines. Steam Traction World should design something to prevent this packing nut from unscrewing. My solution may not be the best, but I think something should be designed to stop the packing nut from loosening. Just my 2-cents.

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