Looking at a Galion 118

Bluox said:

Look at the video shows a hyd. cyl. on a bell crank.
The cab shows levers on hyd valves .
Bob

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Ok, I see the 2 pistons in this picture. Did Galion have mechanical drive at one time? Seems like an unusual amount of moving parts instead of putting pistons in the regular position.

Yes I think I have seen mechanical Galion.

Yes, it sure looks like that was a carryover from a mechanical drive. Remember, that design is remarkably close to the pull type graders where the gearbox was driven by a handwheel by the operator that stood on a low platform where the cab is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Galion_No_14.jpg

cuttin edge said:

Ok, I see the 2 pistons in this picture. Did Galion have mechanical drive at one time? Seems like an unusual amount of moving parts instead of putting pistons in the regular position.

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I have never seen a mechanical Galion, but early ones may have existed. Galion was an early adopter of hydraulic control on graders, long before many of the competition.
The bell crank system worked ok, but years of use made all the extra linkage loose and sloppy and hard to tighten up.
The linkage system according to my dad was for times that you did side slopes on banks, and large ditching projects as the link arm extended, and the bell crank could be repositioned in several holes in relation to the horizontal shaft.
Another reason according to dad is hydraulic hose was unreliable and expensive way back when, and the bell crank kept the hose run short. I’m guessing that long rod cylinders were expensive also, so the ability to use a short stroke cylinder may have been a factor also.

Galion was a popular brand around here as the factory was only 150 miles from here. You were more likely to see a Galion than any other make, with Wabco, Huber and Cat pulling up behind.
It seemed that Galion would install whatever brand engine you fancied in their machines also, Continental, Cummins, International Harvester, Detroit Diesel, Waukesha, and Hercules.

No graders around here, at least in my time. Seen a few small cranes, and maybe a roller

I bought a couple books on eBay for Galion. Both parts and operators manuals. I realized these are for earlier machines, from the 50's. Luckily, I found both parts and owners manuals for about the 1960-61 era. My serial number falls into the range of both books.
Hopefully sometime this week we can pick up the machine. As far as fixing the grader where it is, I'd rather being it to my shop. It's too cold outside and all my tools are at the shop. One issue that needs to be fixed is the milky hydraulic fluid. Luckily, I have a hydraulic fluid purifier. This machine removes water from the hydraulic oil by means of vacuum dehydration. It works very well, turning milk into gold. Water in the hydraulic fluid could be the root cause of the power steering problem. Wet hydraulic fluid is bad news no matter how you slice it.

Love, love, loved .... the "Handle to a Hen's Nest" style thermostat housing.

Ya just don't see many of them Galion 118's and in that condition - WOW.

Fat Dan said:

Love, love, loved .... the "Handle to a Hen's Nest" style thermostat housing.
View attachment 251725

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Reminds me of a T-500C we had at a job I worked at years ago. It had a horizontal muffler that exited to the rear of the machine. The 3” angle cut pipe was irresistible to birds building a nest. The 4-71 would always fire up the first piston up and the nest and birds shoot out instantly.

FirstEliminator said:

... One issue that needs to be fixed is the milky hydraulic fluid. Luckily, I have a hydraulic fluid purifier. This machine removes water from the hydraulic oil by means of vacuum dehydration. It works very well, turning milk into gold. .

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OK you got to feed me Seymour... Say What? I got to check into this new alien tech...

Saw these in action at the nuke on hydraulic actuator systems supplies.

Fat Dan said:

OK you got to feed me Seymour... Say What? I got to check into this new alien tech...

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It would work under the principle that water will boil at room temperature if under a vacuum. The same thing happens when you put the vacuum pump on an A/C system to evacuate the moisture, the water boils at 20 some inches of mercury.

Looks like I will have to make a video of purifying the hydraulic fluid. The purifying process isn't quick. The exhaust hose of the vacuum pump will drip some water and emanate some steam. Whatever else is coming out creates a terrible odor. Gotta vent the hose outside. I went on the hunt for a purifying machine because my bucket truck seems to collect water. Used it on my Grove crane as well. To flush all cylinders would probably take about 4 times the hydraulic fluid capacity of the machine. Then you have a bunch of water contaminated oil to dispose of. I let this circulate till clean and then top off. Here is a pic of the big machine and small machine.
The more vacuum you apply to water, the lower the temp is for boiling. You can boil water at room temp if you apply about 30 inches of vacuum. It work opposite of a radiator. The more pressure you apply will raise the boiling point.

I've been started and forgot a couple of attempts to build a simple version of that. With just a refrigerator compressor and a junk electric water heater tank. I think it will work, and I don't care how long it takes to work. If you heat the oil to 120-150F the water will boil out with much less vacuum. Biggest problem I see is a condenser so the compressor doesn't get flooded with water, or short compressor life from too much water.

A regular automotive AC vacuum pump pulls moisture out of the A/C system I bet they are easy to find used on CL or FBMP. When the water boils, it comes out as a gas, no worries on flooding. Talking with Pall Company---the one who made the purifiers I have, they say too hot of oil will allow additives to boil and be stripped out of the base oil. Also, foaming can happen at too high of heat. I tend to run mine between 110-130F. The small purifier had no provision for heating oil, so I added one on the intake side. It needed heat since the small machine was outside strapped to the back of my crane last winter.

Can you just use a filter cart with the appropriate filters to remove water and particulate? I was up in Edmonton last fall talking to a guy that only deals in filtration and he was showing me some filters for water contamination. Here's a pic of my filter cart that I still need to finish plumbing up.

Filters will work to remove a little moisture. They don't hold much, and are expensive enough to be more than new oil. The problem is you can never remove all the oil so you have to change many times, so a filter cart or centrifuge or vacuum dehydrator makes more sense.

Water absorbing filters are good to run to help control regular condensation. They will probably capture some free water, and emulsified water. Not sure if they'd have much effect on dissolved water. It seems water gets dissolved after going through the pump. In case you're wondering Free water is the strait water at the bottom of the reservoir. Emulsified is suspended droplets---like shaking up a bottle of Italian dressing. Dissolved is molecules of water bonded to the molecules of oil. Not sure if dissolved water would ever separate without some mechanical influence.

FirstEliminator and Delmer. Thanks for this. I don't know if the filters can get all the water. How do you measure water at the molecular level? Do the typical oil analysis tests cover this?

James Sorochan said:

How do you measure water at the molecular level? Do the typical oil analysis tests cover this?

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These sensors are made by Pall. I found these on ebay. There are other brands. Some require consumables to test. Some you just clean the probe.
If the fluid looks milky, the saturation is high.