Reconditioning A Dauntless Oil Bath Air Cleaner

Wondering if anyones been down this road before and might have some advice.

I got this cheap off eBay a while back and it’s been sitting in storage.

seems that there’s a hole in the bottom outside, and also on the inside. Are these factory or wear, and I should weld them closed?


note the hole at lower left on inside
And note the hole on lower right of this photo, here’s a closeup:


do these two parts come apart to allow for cleaning of the screen?

 

The holes are not factory.
The assembly will require cutting to get to the screen.


I modified mine to accept a paper filter.

 

There are a couple of really good threads about that for both early and late cleaners:
( Early Type ) V6 Oil Bath To Paper Element Air Cleaner Conversion

Wondering if it's probably not a good idea to bead blast mine in case any of the media hides in the screen and might one day make it into the engine...

 

I agree on your thoughts about not bead blasting, probably best to wire wheel, sand or use paint remover/solvent. Whenever I bead blast something the stuff seems to get everywhere.
Careful work with a mig welder and a Dremel grinder can fix the holes but JB weld may be equally sufficient and less work.

 

I’m learning how to TIG And im a glutton for punishment so I’ll probably give that a try.

 

Solder.

 

Tim - curious why you'd suggest that over TIG brazing so I can control the heat better with the pedal as compared to a torch? That's what I did to fix the Ross horn wire tube washer and it worked great.

 

If you can TIG neatly enough, sure. Brazing implies a brass filler rod and flux, which is the same as soldering but with a higher temp alloy. Solder would be fine, and requires much less of an investment in equipment and experience.

 

Gotcha thanks for the input. I did use brass rod on the horn wire tube, and I also stitched in a broken ear on my PTO cover that was missing. "Neat" may be debatable but I'm getting there.

I started a non-profit community shop here in Truckee five years ago (Truckee Roundhouse), and among our five shops is a pretty complete metal shop. It operates like a fitness club, in that anyone can join for $50/month and take classes and then use the shop equipment, so we have access to some really nice tools.

 

Interesting. A noble endeavor. If we had something like that around here, I would love to participate/contribute/whatever.

The whole "maker" phenomenon is very healthy for society and the participants, IMO. Does this center mesh at all with trades-oriented education at local trade schools or community colleges? Or is it strictly for hobbyists?

At MIT the undergrads have IAP (independent activities period) where they could take all sorts of maker-like courses in machining, welding, woodworking, etc. ... as well as interest-driven academic courses. I participated as a lecturer, but never had the opportunity to take courses. It would be neat to have something like that in the community that was unencumbered by an academic affiliation.

 

Thanks! I should add our space was brought to life through the hard work of a group of folks besides just myself; it was a team effort. And that we are located in a 5,000ft hangar at the Truckee Airport, without whose support we wouldn’t exist.

We are affiliated with our local community college Sierra College, who actually gave us a very generous grant to purchase all of our welders, including the Miller 250DX I’ve been learning on.

Their students can come and earn credit for our classes. And thus we are open to hobbyists as well as local contractors, retirees, and college students. The real beauty of the place is when all of these folks mix and share knowledge and collaborate.

Tim if you were closer I’d love to have you teach classes for us! Offering folks like you the opportunity to share knowledge (and earn some extra cash; teachers keep 50% of class revenue) was a primary driver for starting our project.

 

What are some techniques / options I could try to fix the dents on the bottom half? Obviously without cutting the thing apart I can't get to the back side.



I understand I could just clean and paint and ignore them but I'm interested in learning how to fix this kind of stuff just for the sake of learning. Drill and pull? Solder/braze a post and pull, then grind? Anyone have a link to a good place to learn about this kind of stuff?

 

Buy a body work stud welder from harbor freight. Make a round fixture from wood to hold the outside shape and use the pulling tool to pull the dents out.

 

Since you have no access to the inside, I'd say stud welder and pull. The objective (as I understand it) is to reverse the force along the same vector as it was applied. The dent stresses the steel, and reversing the force relieves these stresses. The steel "wants" to return to its original shape.

There is a tool that welds studs onto the surface, specifically for this purpose. A matching slide hammer fits the standardized studs. I suppose you could do the same with a conventional welder.

 

Finally got this done. Is this the correct sticker for the front?

 

Looks really nice. Not sure on the sticker though. I don't know about the authenticity nearly as well as others on here. They will strer you right though.

 

It looks like the one for my 66 Tux.