Drilingl out oil passages in a 2k?

I have been working on my K&T 2k plain in my offtime for months now. I have been cleaning/painting the knee, I have it up on a bench. I am also replacing bearings, seals and pretty much anything else I come across. I have been cleaning out the oil passages that are piped with copper tubing, everything I have come across so far has been plugged solid. I have been getting intimate with my parts manual, and the inside of this thing.

There has always been this pipe cleaner (wicking) material sticking out of the inside, supposedly for catching some of the oil when its flowing. There are 3. I never could tell where it went, but I was working on other stuff so I never gave it a thought. Today I was poking around waiting for primer to dry, and I started poking around in a hole, to clean it out. i found some of the pipe cleaner material in the hole. After poking around a bit more it looks like it may connect with the passage to the original 3 pipe cleaners. After looking a bit more I discovered where I think the other 2 go. They lubricate the sliding shafts for the rear controls.

This all brings me to the reason for this thread. Everything so far on the K&T has been made to be serviced. It bolts or presses together. These pipe cleaners look as though they were put in place, and a plug screwed or pressed in, then cut off flush. In order to service and replace them, it looks like I would have to drill out the plugs. Now I don't really have a problem with this, as I would probably just put a set screw in so I could deal with it again if I needed to, I just don't want to go drilling holes in the knee of my mill unless this is what I am supposed to do.

Anybody had to do this on their machine?

Here are the pipe cleaners inside the knee(coming out of the left wall)


Here you can see the pipe cleaners in the background, and the plug I am speaking about in front


Here you can see the plug on the right, and the hole I was digging in on the lower left. They are in line with each other


Here are the other 2 plugs on top. The top screw of the three is also a plug


Here you can barely see the holes where the oil would flow to the shafts

I spent a long time getting the oil passages in my B&S #2 heavy's knee to work correctly. I luckily found a page that sort of showed the passages and after scraping off the paint I was able to see the plugs and drill them out. I found pipe cleaners were one of the best tools to clean them out. I have a hard time believing the factory would leave them inside the passages..

I also had to figure out and repair the transmission so the regular feeds would work.

I took some pictures of what I did and they start here in the repair thread.

They may be some type of meters filter for the oil.

Nobody? I believe the pipe cleaners are in every KT, from what I've seen. I think cmike has it right, it's to limit the amount of oil, like a wick. I really don't want to start drilling on this thing without a bit more feedback. I tried using air to unplug the passages but no luck. Help me get this beast back to life!

Not unusual looking. Forge ahead and pull the old wicks. Assume debris cannot pass via the old wick so the passage is debris free but may contain yuck or not. Drill and tap the plug and remove with a knock-out slide. Tap for pipe plugs or set screws and after cleaning threads and passages use pipe dope to seal threads. Do not over think this. It was just a production/assembly short cut. Drill the passage-install the wick-smack in the plug.
John

Thanks Jhruska. That's pretty much what I thought. I will give it a shot and report back.

Bjour web page has lots of info on oil passages, lube, filters, flow rates and such.

In many machines they used 1/8" pipe cleaners as oil wicks. it was (and is) a common practice. Most of those machines were designed as war machines and they had many short cuts to get them out of the factory to win the war (s). BiJur i the way it is spelled. I have also used lamp oil wicks in many machines too or those bigger pipe cleaners 1/4". I would suggest you drill and tap a hole in them clean through and tap it and use a pull hammer to pull out the plug or drill it to a 1/8 pipe thread and as the one guy said use an Allen capped pipe plug and teflon paste. Squirt Brake cleaner with the small plastic tube and air works good to clean out the gunk. I have seen the holes solid with gunk and you think it is part of the casting, those need to be drilled out too.. Be sure to wear eye protection as brake cleaner in the eye stings. Rich

Thanks guys. I have always read about the pipe cleaner wicks but have never dealt with them until now. Last night I drilled out the plugs and got the wicks out. They were pretty well clogged with goop. I'll tap em to 1/8" npt and find some new pipe cleaners the correct size. Onto the next part!

Here is a pic of the pipe cleaner I pulled out. it almost looks like it's plugged with grease, but it's just 70 year sludge



Fresh holes cleaned out

Not only "wicks", but feeds at some slower rate than just sloshing oil into a clean bore. A little oil ALL THE TIME is way better than flooding it now and again.

It is possible to buy a roll of pipe cleaner, if standard lengths aren't suitable.

Pipe Cleaners - Medisafe

TO all concerned,
The 'pipe cleaners' are more than likely retainers for the capillary oil wicks.. which have probably departed long ago to the sump or filter. New oil felts/wicks can be found at Mcmaster-carr. (sp ? ) There is alot of info on them on the Southbend forum if you care to look. There are different grade/ densities for different flows.. This may explain some things.. McMaster-Carr
Hope this helps
Stay safe
Calvin

Thanks again guys. Between Mcmaster and Medisafe I should be able to find the pipe cleaner wicks, and felt to do the wipers etc. I need some felt for some other machine wipers as well, so I will just do it all.

Here is another site I came across Craft Shop: Chenille Stems, Pipe Cleaners, Cotton Chenille Wired Roping on Blumchen.com

The local tool shop had 1/16" npt fittings as well, so I picked up a good tap and plugs in that size as well. Some of the passages I drilled out were smaller than others so I wanted 2 sizes.

Well here is a bunch of pipe cleaners, all 100% natural cotton. This is $15 worth, and will probably have 95% of it left over. Next is felt!