Sears and Roebuck Champion (Stover): Project lost cause

[mtblah]

Tom welcolme,
you will be amazed at the depth of knowledge and willingness to share.
the encouragement will help keep you motovated along the way.
Mike B
New Braunfels TX

[TomsWaterPumper]

Here's what I discovered this morning.... I should have looked this thing over more closeley before I bought it.

The top picture shows the crank gear's trunion/stub askew maybe 15 deg, hanging on by one edge and bent, all part of the gear casting. Whatever broke off the pitman arms (a collapsed tower or freefall when being taken down?) also cracked/broke one cast iron gear at the same time.

bottom pic shows the extent of the crack/break, arrow to arrow. This gear is junk.

I'm thinking this does not bode well for this project

Opinions?

[TomsWaterPumper]

The guide rod bridge has an old repair

The bearing that supports the drive large gear shaft is also bad, the gears wobble 1/4" (when checked near the teeth) as a result. That bearing has to be 'wallowed out' by 1/16" or more.

Another broken off part of the casting, looks like the attachment point for the vane assembly

[TomsWaterPumper]

10ft diameter sail

40lb beagle Buddy, I call him 'the Supervisor' for size comparison

[PaulV]

Welcome to the forum Tom Glad you found us!

[windybob]

Tom, it's likely that you might save that particular mill for a winter project for show. Those were made by the way from about '32 to '42. You might consider getting a more recent, or late model brand for the pumper.

Regardless, whatever you want to know, just holler.

[windybob]

Okay, first things first. You have another thread started. PAUL... can you put both these threads together? Thanks! Now... If the wheel is indeed 10 ft, I have nothing for parts. we have no 10 ft mills here. However, here are some brain points. Lots of cast can be welded. I have welded many gears. Pitmans, maybe you can make some. I do know that 6 and 8 ft Mod M's have no bearings, just steel shafts on cast case. Apparently these are called "Plain" bearings. I guess Plain bearings mean no bearings. Cut the Big gear shaft on both sides, and remove the gears and remainder of shaft. If the case is worn, either pour it to babbitt, or install a brass bearing, which may involve boring. I poured mine. The case web where the crank gear shaft goes thru is cracked? Maybe welded. If there is an oil feed hole, redrill it, if you weld it up accidentally. I don't see any pinion gears. ( small ones) If they are shot, well, we will cover that later.
There are numbers all over the cast parts. SIze of mill, and part number. The 6 footers start with 6, and 8 footers start with 8. I will suppose for now yours start with 10? That means a 10 ft mill.
SO that may be why the back of your mill looks odd to me. If it's a 10 ft, it may be made different than i'm used to. Thats a bummer the tab's broken, but can be welded up. it's the top hole that gets the pull from the tail, the bottom gets the push from the weight, so not a big of deal. However, when the tail goes sideways, so does the push.

Here is my 6 footer,

Stover Sears Mod M 6 ft.jpeg

Here is what you probably have, seems like the early model.

Stover Mod M 2 ed.jpg

Here is a later model. Notice the wheel crosshead...Different than the sliding crosshead.

Stover Mod M 1.jpeg

[TomsWaterPumper]

Thanks everyone for the welcome! Looks like a cool place to hang out with some hard working DIYer's like myself.

I started a thread under "Projects", along with several pictures. I'll not add anything else here on that mill, so we can keep all that dialog and info in one place.

[TomsWaterPumper]

windybob: You asked about water depth, 135ft If I recall correctly.

Edit: Scratch that: 203ft deep confirmed against the 2019 well driller's report

Sorry for the poor quality pics, I took them this morning at first light, had to hustle off to my job.

I can get some better ones of the rear section.

[windybob]

I asked the moderator if he could join the two threads.