Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Erie 70 sight glass removal help...

I have looked through all of the old posts on this subject and none of them seemed to pertain to removing th sight glass ring with a good sight glass still in it. My top had two perfect sight glasses but the spinners were nasty and dirty inside so I have to get them off. I have soaked the rings with two different kinds of penetrant for a week and they still would not budge. So, last night after getting frustrated I tried a hammer and punch on one side to see if I could jar it loose and about the third whack, the sight glass broke right at the base. Well, after it broke off I had nothing to lose so broke the rest of the glass out from under the ring and cleaned out the old gasket material. As soon as that was all cleaned out the ring just screwed right out. The threads are rusty but it seems that the seal of the glass to the ring with that old gasket is what is preventing them from screwing out with the glass still in there. Anybody else figure out a way to get these things loosened on a top with a good sight glass still in there? At least Ron S. has these made so I can replace them, but it hurts to have to buy something just because you have to ruin a perfect original just to remove it. I made a nice spanner wrench that fits the four notches and can put a lot of torque on it but it is still dead tight in there. I even tried heating the cast around the ring with a torch before I tried the hammer and that didn't even work. I figured the heat would break the glass anyway but it didn't on that one. Should I have soaked it longer? I don't think that the penetrant will ever soak completely through the gasket enough to let it break loose but maybe I am rushing it. Any help (or sympathy) would be welcome.....Gary

Gary,
You have my sympathy...lol, that pump is evil for more reasons than just the sight glass.
Your tool looks well engineered so I might suggest using a air powered impact wrench which will give it that hammering effect rather than an even radial load.
Good luck, Tom.

Gary if you are able to figure it out using your tool I'd be interested in borrowing the tool to remove my sight glasses on my Erie 80 they are the same as yours I believe...

Thanks for the sympathy Tom. I have tried the impact on it and it still isn't cooperating. I think I will keep soaking it for a few days and keep trying but the gasket that came out of the other side that I broke was hard as a rock and I doubt that anything will penetrate it enough to allow it to break loose. I'm not in a hurry so I will just give it some time. I'm going out of town for a couple of weeks anyway so I thought about just submerging it in diesel and letting it soak while I'm gone, maybe it would eventually soak through. I'll post the outcome, good or bad....

And, Tom you are welcome to borrow my tool when I get finished with it. When I'm done with it I'll let you know and get it to you....Gary

Hey Gary,
I hate to admit I did this but years ago when I first started out with pumps I was working on one of these Erie's (probably why I hate them to this day) I could not find a better way to get the sight glass nut off so I took about a 1/16" drill bit and drilled straight down thru the threads in about 8 evenly spaced places, filled it with penetrating oil, let it soak and it spun right out. Nobody noticed my handy work since it's on top.
Reminds me of a time when I was working with a hack mechanic and I called him out on something and he replied "poor people have poor ways" hmmm....I may have resembled that remark...LOL
Tom.

Shoot Tom, you shouldn't hate to admit doing something that works. Like you say, it was not even visible when it was all done so I can't see where it would really hurt. Funny that it did work so good though, as I figured it was the gasket stuck to the rim flange of that glass that's holding it so tight. But I guess with the holes around the threads the oil could get into the gasket better. Maybe it is the threads rather than the gasket I don't know. It's a dumb design anyway. I know that we spend hours restoring the insides of these pumps and when they're done, nobody ever sees how pretty all that is inside.....Gary