Cleaning an oil bath

[Kansas Rust Buzzard]

I normally rebuild them so cleaning is not an issue, however, I got a 16 foot Aermotor that was put up in 58 or 59 (can't read stamp) and was taken down a few years later when they got electricity and stored. Everything is tight but the helmet was not fastened down and the mice have made home in it. I did pretty good cleaning it out, but there is a lot of hard caked on grease in the thing and I don't want to sandblast with the good babbit yet. Do people have good luck steam cleaning or should I just pressure was it good and forget about it? It doesn't look like it has much wear, it was just for a house on a 1000 ft well. Thanks for any ideas

[Mister Ed]

When it comes to old iron & old grease I always use diesel. Sometimes let them soak (if practical), sometimes work it around with brush, sometimes both.

[LoTec]

There is a local weekly shopper-type paper that we get. One of the recurring classified ads reads something like, "Need it cleaned? Call Lynn! She will clean anything!" I have thought numerous times about giving Lynn a call, while scraping layers of caked on gack and grease out of windmill heads.

[MAS (RIP)]

When I did the 18' Samson for Shattuck I took the gear box to an automotive machine shop and had it hot tanked

[windmillerman]

In the farm machinery business we have cleaned a zillion tons of grease covered steel, always with our trusty steam cleaner