Fig. 2542.
The effects will be precisely the same, and in the same direction with relation to the various parts of the crank’s revolution, if the crank-pin end of the shaft was of correct height; but the other end was too high, hence, in correcting the error, it is desirable to place the engine on the dead centre, so as to determine which end of the shaft to operate on—that is to say, whether to raise the crank-pin end or lower the other end. But suppose the error to be that the crank-pin end of the shaft was too high instead of too low, then, the testing being continued as before, the effects will be of the same general character, but altered with relation to the specific parts of the revolution. Thus, when the crank is at the bottom, the rod would fall towards a, [Fig. 2542], and when at the top, it would fall in the opposite direction—that is, towards d, [Fig. 2542].
We now come to one of the most common errors in the alignment of the parts of an engine, and to the one that it is the most difficult to locate or discover, namely, a want of parallelism between the axial line of the crank pin and that of the crank shaft.
This generally arises from improper methods in the chucking of the crank to bore it, or from errors induced in fastening the crank to its shaft. The results are precisely alike in both cases, supposing, of course, the errors to exist in the same direction in the two cases.
The error in chucking usually consists in planing one surface of the crank, and bolting the planed surface against the chuck to bore both crank holes. In this case the crank holes will be out of true to twice the amount the lathe face plate may be out of true, and to whatever amount the crank may alter its form from having its surface metal removed.
To avoid these errors the large bore and its hub face should be turned at one chucking, and this hub face should be bolted to the face plate for the second chucking, the small end swinging free, except in so far as the ends of the plates may touch against it to steady it.
Fig. 2543.