AA 260 New DHW Flange install in the house

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Rick 386
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Location: Royersford, Pa
Stoker Coal Boiler: AA 260 heating both sides of twin farmhouse
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Post by Rick 386 » Thu. Oct. 10, 2019 10:39 pm

Greetings fellow coal burners.

Several years ago I replumbed my AA 260 to make things simpler.

The entire thread is here : Maintenance on My AA 260

Since then the DHW mounting area has rusted again causing leaks in the system requiring me to constantly be adding water to the system. This does not do well to the boiler treatment as it is constantly weakening the concentration of the fluid.

So I decided to take the unit offline and fix this hopefully for the last time.

It is my intention to do this repair while keeping the boiler still attached to the existing pipes.

I received the parts from Axeman along with instructions from Pete himself. I have a local contact who can bring his generator and welding gear to my house and weld in the new flange. He is also a certified welder so I should not have any issues.

Here are several pics of the progress so far.
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Existing clearances to work in

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Existing leaks

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DHW Coil disconnected

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My unit uses a gearmotor for the auger & asher

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DHW coil removed. Notice the rusted mounting area

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Fan removed. 1st time since 1959 ??

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Swirl chamber

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Ready for new flange

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Last edited by Rick 386 on Thu. Oct. 10, 2019 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Rick 386
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Location: Royersford, Pa
Stoker Coal Boiler: AA 260 heating both sides of twin farmhouse
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: LL Hyfire II w/ coaltrol in garage
Coal Size/Type: Pea in AA 260, Rice in LL Hyfire II
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Post by Rick 386 » Thu. Oct. 10, 2019 10:53 pm

Removing the combustion fan was fairly easy. I really don't think it was ever removed since new.

The bolts are just a standard 3/8" x 16 x 1" bolt and nut setup. Mine were horribly rusted in place. A short time with the cordless sawzall with a metal cutting blade it real easy. I unbolted the bracket at the top of the base on both sides where the rubber bushings are located. I also removed the bolt attaching the lower support bracket into the ash pan area. After cutting the bolts that hold the fan to the boiler, I carefully removed the entire fan and support bracket assembly as 1 unit. And I managed to do that without spilling oil on myself or my shoes. (Thanks Stoker Don for the video on how not to do it.....:-)


Any questions, fire away......


Rick

 
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swyman
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Post by swyman » Fri. Oct. 11, 2019 12:44 am

Thank you Rick as I will be about a month behind you in doing this. I was thinking of just welding a plate and deleting this but you never know what the future brings and I would rather have it...... a really nice feature as I have this hooked up in the house with my current boiler. Just curious, did your coil come out hard? I had to squash mine together so it would fit out the hole.

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Fri. Oct. 11, 2019 7:06 am

Yep, time to fix properly guys!!! Ya both on well water?????????????? Takes it's toll!!!

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Fri. Oct. 11, 2019 7:53 am

They start to weep because no one ever snugs them up. This must be done periodically with any waterside gasket. With new startup, it should be done several times.


 
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Rick 386
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Post by Rick 386 » Fri. Oct. 11, 2019 8:13 am

SWYMAN - The coil came out relatively easy once the seal was broken.

FF - yes I'm on well water with a water softener.

CS - In my previous work on this unit, I had to replace all the mounting studs. Perhaps there was some leakage from that ??
When installing the new coil back then, I even put a layer of gasket maker on both sides of the new gasket. And yes I have tightened the bolts several times since the install. I never really noticed the leak until this past year. I think it was such a slight leak that most of the leakage evaporated as it came out but it was still leaking anyhow. And then the rust began breaking the seal. Putting that sealer on the gasket did make it a little interesting trying to remove the coil as I had to break the gasket free from the sealer and the areas where it was still attached.

I'm waiting for a call from the welder before I can go further.

Sister in law is already complaining about it feeling cooler on her side of the house since the AA is not radiating heat into the basement under her floorboards..........



Rick

 
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swyman
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Post by swyman » Fri. Oct. 11, 2019 11:09 pm

freetown fred wrote:
Fri. Oct. 11, 2019 7:06 am
Yep, time to fix properly guys!!! Ya both on well water?????????????? Takes it's toll!!!
Yup, well water here also. It is treated.....Kinetico system...from well goes into a 180 gallon tank where it is aerated and injected with chlorine, then charcoal filter, and water softener. So should basically be like city water?

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sat. Oct. 12, 2019 12:47 pm

CITY WATER????????????????????? :roll: :lol: Soooo, that's not the problem. :)

 
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Rick 386
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Location: Royersford, Pa
Stoker Coal Boiler: AA 260 heating both sides of twin farmhouse
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: LL Hyfire II w/ coaltrol in garage
Coal Size/Type: Pea in AA 260, Rice in LL Hyfire II
Other Heating: Gas fired infared at work
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Post by Rick 386 » Sun. Nov. 17, 2019 10:13 pm

UPDATE:

The welder was finally able to come out 2 weeks ago. They MIG welded the new flange in place. Not the best setup as his main stick welder was out of commission and getting repaired. The biggest issue was getting the torch head between the new coil flange and the fan flange on the boiler. But they managed to get some decent welds in place. Or so we thought...…..

After installing the tankless coil last week and adding water up to 30 PSI, several small leaks appeared.

He finally got the parts for his Lincoln diesel fired stick welder last Friday. Today we spent 4 hours chasing leaks by welding and then pressurizing and then welding again. Don't know if it was the old steel, the heating and cooling the steel has seen since its creation in 1953, or just the nature of the beast but finally it is all welded and no leaks. Except for a small leak that developed around the threads of the rear anthrastat port. It is so small I will wait to see if it seals itself once the boiler is fired back up.
11-17-19_Welding_Coil_Bkt.jpg
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Now the question, is this normal for the combustion fan ??
11-17-19_Fan.01.jpg
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I wanted to remove the fan so as not to damage it while having to drill out the frozen in place mounting/attachment bolts that bolt the fan assembly to the back of the boiler. I saw that there were 2 -1/4" bolts that I thought held the fan onto the shaft. I removed the bolts and it looks like the fan attaching block is supposed to be made of 2 pieces. Or is there a split in the flange on the fan that just needs the bolts removed to expand the flange to allow it to slide off the shaft ??



Rick

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McGiever
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Post by McGiever » Sun. Nov. 17, 2019 11:06 pm



 
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Nov. 18, 2019 6:25 am

Rick, unless you feel like buying a new fan I would leave that alone. Understood that if you can't get the mounting bolts on the other side drilled out you won't have much choice.

Did you buy a new coil to go with that new mounting flange?

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Mon. Nov. 18, 2019 7:32 am

The fan and shaft are balanced as a unit. I would be leary of taking it apart, vibration is not your friend. It is two pieces and the bolts are SS IIRC.

 
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Rick 386
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Posts: 2508
Joined: Mon. Jan. 28, 2008 4:26 pm
Location: Royersford, Pa
Stoker Coal Boiler: AA 260 heating both sides of twin farmhouse
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: LL Hyfire II w/ coaltrol in garage
Coal Size/Type: Pea in AA 260, Rice in LL Hyfire II
Other Heating: Gas fired infared at work
Contact:

Post by Rick 386 » Mon. Nov. 18, 2019 9:58 am

McG, Thanks for the link. I did't realize this topic was in that long 70+ page string.

Rob, yes I did get a new coil, coil gasket, and fan gasket. It was suggested to me to do so by Pete.

CS, I just wasn't sure if the fan originally had a split type clamp and that it had broken. And no my bolts were not SS. They were plain steel bolts that snapped when trying to take the clamp apart.

So in order to not disturb anything, I guess I will just remove the shaft from the other end. And if you look close, my fan is not bolted onto the hub, it is rivited.

I'm beginning to think that all my issues are due to our street address number being 666 :o :twisted:



Rick

 
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Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
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Post by McGiever » Mon. Nov. 18, 2019 10:32 am

coaledsweat wrote:
Mon. Nov. 18, 2019 7:32 am
The fan and shaft are balanced as a unit. I would be leary of taking it apart, vibration is not your friend. It is two pieces and the bolts are SS IIRC.
Fan and shaft??? This keeps being brought up in recent AA rebuilds.
Wonder why Axeman sells individual replacement parts and sub-assemblies separately if it is to be all balanced as a unit?
Would not it make sense for Axeman to just balance each single item number piece of the assembly? Then repairs can be done easily with off the shelf balanced single parts list items.

BTW: The AA260 fan shaft is very different assembly from a AA130, don't confuse the two...

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