And while on the subject of the sanders, the rather complex sanding control system needed a complete rebuild.  There are 3 solenoid valves that are operated by the wheel slip circuitry.  There are 2 double check valves that are operated either by the manual sanding valve in the cab or by the MU sanding lines.  And, there are 4 sanding relay valves that are operated from either the solenoid valves or the double check valves,  Every single valve was full of dirt and completely inoperative.  Not only that but most of the copper lines were plugged with wasp nests.  It certainly was a mess.

After Bill cleaned out the jacking bolt holes with a 10mm tap, we began the process of removing the outer ring from the rubber section.  It went very smoothly and soon we had 2 pieces where there had been one.

Work has continued on the sanders.  Much of the copper piping was stolen so new bits are being formed and put into place.  One interesting thing we had to do was make about a dozen of the small tubing clamps seen in the first photos.  The originals had been thrown away by the copper thieves and they are not an 'off the shelf' item.  So, we made a die that could be pressed with our hydraulic press to create new clamps.  It worked rather well or as they say, 'crude but effective'.

-- Update December 06, 2014 --
The transmission in the 9010 has received a bit of past attention but is mostly an unknown.  We do know that it was serviceable when the locomotive was put out of service in 1968 but that is about it.  Sometime in the past, it was drained of its fluid but whether that was during the camera car conversion or when at CSRM in Sacramento, we don't know.  It appears to be complete, except of course for the Cardan shafts connecting it to the Maybach engine and the rear truck.  Until November of 2014, it was also missing all of  the wiring connecting it to the control systems in the cab.  

Some time ago, the small rack containing the control valves for the hydro-dynamic brake was removed in order to get access to the rear main terminal board for wiring.  It was completely cleaned, rebuilt and tested.

While examining the transmission, I opened the covers that protect the converter control rods and discovered this mess.  They are not normally exposed to the weather but when the radiator elements were stolen, there was nothing keeping rain water away from the transmission and this is what happened.  I also pulled the dip stick and saw that it was severely rusted.  Further examination revealed that there is no rust inside the transmission case and no explanation of the rusted dip stick.  The control rods and housings were cleaned as was the dip stick and all seems to be well in that department.

We decided that because of the impending purchase of the Cardan shafts and completion of the control wiring, we would see if the transmission is operational.  This started by purchasing 2 barrels of transmission fluid.  The transmission holds 200 gallons but because of it cost, we bought only 110 gallons for now.  Bill and I connected a welder to the dynastarter and spun the transmission as fast as the welder could turn it, which turned out to be 475 RPM, somewhat shy of the engine idling speed of 680 RPM.  A gauge was installed on the line between the pump and the heat exchanger and after some time running, no pressure was observed.  We had a good look at what little documentation we have and removed the cover from the "duplex non-return valve" and found it to be stuck, a condition which would prevent the fluid from circulating.  The piston and walls of the valve bore were coated with varnish, probably from sitting for 40+ years.  The valve and bore were cleaned and re-assembled.  

Thanks go to our friend Simon with the DEPG in the UK who been of great help to us with Voith transmission information.

There has been concern that with no fluid pressure, we were not lubricating the bearings and other surfaces inside the transmission.  I gathered some odds and ends and rigged a pump that would pull oil out of the sump and put it into the filter preceding the  "lubricating line".  Running the pump yielded about 4 pounds of pressure in the lubricating system.

After installing the external lubricating pump, we decided to spin the dynastarter using the locomotives battery supply.  This yielded 540 RPM, still shy of the idling speed but the lubricating oil pressure came up to around 8 pounds.  At this point, we realized why the heat exchanger is so oily in its center section - it leaks.  This will have to be addressed before we get very serious about running the transmission.  The heat exchanger is made in two sections with the pipe you see connecting the water flow between them.  The leak is coming from one (or both) of the bolted flanges above the pipe.

This is a continuation of the mess noted in the December 06 update.  After studying our literature and determining that things might not explode, I removed the cover from the control valve section of the transmission.  Sure enough, nothing exploded.  :-)  First, we have top and bottom views of the cover, with the two manual actuating rods attached. 

Next is a view of one of the actuating rod assemblies followed by a view of what I found when I took the assemblies apart.  The rods had sustained some damage to their threads from the rust but nothing that will keep them from screwing in and out of the housing.  Much cleaning followed by a bead blasting made them look good again and removed the possible contamination from the rust.  They were re-assembled, lubricated and re-installed on the cover.

The 3 views inside the transmission case show that it is very clean and oily.  You can see the two control valves clearly.  To the right of the valves is the #3 converter housing and to their left is the #1 converter housing.  The #2 converter housing is out of view to the right.

The last photo tells a story.  The prototype locomotives had a "part fill" function that occurred when the throttle was put in position 1.  In the first photo, note at the upper left of the cover, there is a extrusion on the cover and a plug in its hole.  This was the connection point for the air line that controlled the "part fill" function.  The last photo is of the cover, turned over so that extrusion is at the lower left.  You can see a small hole in the rim where the rod housing bolts and a corresponding hole in the flange of the rod housing.  In fact, this hole appears in both housings although there is no hole in the cover piece for the right hand control rod housing.  Now, refer to the 4th photo and you will see the same hole in the bottom of the rod housing.  The hole connects to - - nothing.  Whatever connected the rod housing to the left hand control valve is not there and I can see no sign of anything plugged or blanked off at the control valve.    This is an interesting vestige of the transmission's use in the prototype locomotives.

With CJ ready, willing and able, we decided to examine the sliding plates (side bearings) as two of them were found to have water in their lubrication wells.  This required that we first remove all 8 shock absorbers, a job that CJ completed in a couple of days.  Considering that they had been in place for probably 50 years, it was a wonder that he did it that quickly.  We soon discovered that they are not actually "shock absorbers" but rather "friction dampers" as they are not automotive type hydraulic devices but purely mechanical instead.

The sliding plates are bolted on the bottom of large carrier frames.  While a bit dirty and somewhat wet, the frames we received with the trucks from France are in good condition and thought was given to replacing the frames currently in place on the 9010 as two of them are extremely rusty and corroded.  Unfortunately, we discovered that the plates on the French trucks had been cut down in size to the point where they would not support the weight of the 9010.  The shadow of the original plate size is visible on the underside of the carrier frame.
There is provision to install threaded rods into holes on the carrier frames.  These rods pass through holes in the locomotive frame and with suitable nuts installed, the plates will stay with the locomotive frame when it is raised.  We figured that we could raise the locomotive enough to inspect the surfaces of the sliding plates we have.

We used 4 jacks to raise the 9010.  With the sliding plate frames attached to the locomotive by the threaded rods, we had to raise the 9010 about 3 inches in order to see the bottom of the plates.  While at it, I decided to weigh the locomotive.  This was done with a small 50 ton hydraulic jack that we partially raised and put a suitable gauge on.  The locomotive was raised evenly 4 times with the weighing jack positioned once on each corner.  In the photo, the gauge is reading 4990 PSI which equates to 55089.06 pounds.  Once we had repeated the weighing process 3 times on each corner, we determined that the 9010 weighs 101,678 at the front end and 108,192 at the rear end.  This information will come in handy when it is time to rent cranes to lift the 9010 for the truck change.

-- Update April 10, 2015 --
Dick has been cleaning and painting the main suspension springs we got from France.  They are all in excellent condition and will be installed under the 9010 when we change the rear truck.  My grandson Matthew also worked on a few of the springs during his recent visit.

Matthew also completed a project that I had started months ago.  He finished the needle gunning of the wheel slip and sanding control area of the frame.  After all the dirt and paint chips were cleaned away, he fired up a small paint gun and turned the area dark lark gray.  It certainly is nice to have that project checked off the list.

On another front, we are going to have several dozen replacement door handles cast.  The handles have a molded-in steel shaft that goes through the latch and are held in place with a nut.  Bill had to make the shafts that will be cast into the handles.  In the first photo, the top shaft is a "Bill".

Meanwhile, I have been keeping busy with a number of little projects like removing the water piping from under the #2 cooling section.  This is being done in order to gain access to the transmission heat exchanger.  When the hood is removed, the exchanger has to come out to be repaired as it is leaking oil, a situation described in the February 7 post.

A couple of special tools had to be made in order to proceed with the process.  It was necessary to locate the heavy side of the drum and rubber assembly.  Bill made a mandrel to which the drum would be bolted for balancing but, the mandrel itself had to be balanced so it would not contaminate the process.  We also made a test stand that had 4 ball bearings upon which the mandrel shaft would rest and be free to turn.  After the mandrel was balanced by Unico Mechanical of Benicia, Cal., it and the drum were set on the bearings, the assembly turned itself so the heavy side was down and Bill marked the light side.

Rich cleaned the outer ring and prepared it for installation.  Note in the second photo that there are bolt holes all around the rim of the ring but there several extra holes at the lower right edge.  The evenly spaced holes are used to attach the coupling assembly to the degree plate on the crankshaft of the engine.  The extra holes were put there during the original balancing process 56 years ago.  These holes created a light spot on the ring which was mounted 180 degrees away from the light spot on the drum assembly.  Getting the ring teeth engaged with the teeth on the drum assembly was quite a process, requiring the use of 12 clamps to slightly compress the rubber of the new resilient part.  Once the teeth were engaged, the assembly was moved to the hydraulic press to complete the job.  Now, the assembly would be taken back to Unico Mechanical for final balancing.

Back at Unico Mechanical in Benicia, the coupling was removed from its shipping carrier (which was made to fit in the back of my car), weighed (290 pounds including the 40 pound mandrel) and mounted to the balancing machine.  While this was a computer controlled process, it still required a great deal of thought and knowledge on the part of the technician.  We were fortunate in that most of the imbalance could be corrected by adding weight to the original lightening holes.  In the end, the process resulted in a well balanced coupling.  It will be stored for a while so we can complete some preparation work on the end of the engine.