Madison Kipp Lubricator

[KevinF]

Ok Stakers you have never let me down.
I am working on a 4 feed Madison Kipp Lubricator for a Rumley lightweight.
I have the thing cleaned repaired and ready to start putting it back together when I noticed somthing.
The four brass right angle fittings that come out of the lubricator, two have check balls and springs, one has a check ball and no spring and one has nothing at all.
The way they are made, with a screw in line with the feed side, would make it appear that they should all have check balls and springs in them.
Is this correct?
Of course the reason I ask is because I never noticed them while taking the thing apart, and now have no idea which one goes where or if they should all have the check balls.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, also does any one make the sight glasses for these? I have a really nice 6 feed that I plan on using or would trade someone for a 4 feed.
Thanks in advance,
KevinF
West Point, Utah

[Edwin]

Hello you mention Madison Kipp and say you have a light weight Rumely,i thought they used a Manzel Bros. lubricator not Madison Kipp,sounds like you have the correct one (Manzel)by your description.I have a few of the oilers and could send you some pics ,the check ball you may find in brass or steel.and the small springs are usually shot anyway.i made some from used guitar strings because they're pretty much music wire and thats what you make springs from,try to find one a close a possible to the original you may have some luck at a hardware store.
Good luck
Ed

[KevinF]

Ed,
Thanks, yep you are so correct. It is a Manzel, (don't even ask how that happened). enough to say everything is at home and I am trying to type as fast as I can on break here at work!!!!!
Any information would be greatly appeciated,
Kevin

kevinf@co.davis.ut.us

[JT Buice]

Madison Kipp Lubricators don't have external check valves. I'm assuming they are built in or not required. Someone more knowledgeable about them can answer that question, but the Manzel Lubricators do require checks.

The Manzel on our "W" has external check ball valves on all four pumps.

[Eric M.]

Madison-Kipp lubricators were advertised as being built under the "Kipp Valveless Principle", which allowed them to build an oil pump with no check valves. The plungers are hollow, and have a couple of ports cut into them that line up with holes in the cylinder wall. The plungers also rotate as they go up and down, so the ports only line up for a certain part of the stroke. This means that some ports are open while the plunger goes up, then as it comes back down, those ports close off and the others open up. It's a really clever idea, and it works well. However, because the plungers have such a complex motion, the internals on a M-K oiler are correspondingly complex. They have a slip ring riding on a "tilted eccentric". This slip ring pivots on a yoke set horizontal to the eccentric, and drives the main plunger. The lift plunger is driven by a set of sector gears off the main plunger, which also lift the lift plunger up and down. They're a mess to work on. Also, each pump assembly has the plungers and cylinders lapped to fit, and that plunger will probably not work with another cylinder.


I REALLY prefer Manzel lubricators for ease of maintenance and cleaning. Here's a comparison:

Cleaning a Manzel
Remove the sight glass
Undo the screws (2 per pump) that hold the pumps in place
Remove the pumps
Clean
Reassemble in reverse order

Cleaning a Madison-Kipp
Remove the sight glass
Remove the top cover to the oiler body
Finagle the cover over the decomposing pot-metal oil cups, which don't want to fit through the holes in the cover
Remove ratchet wheel, ratchet, spring, and handle so you can slide out the drive rod
slide out drive rod
Remove oil pumps, hoping the two-piece eccentrics don't fall apart. If you're lucky, they'll stay together if you handle them with the utmost care.
Clean oil pumps
Clean oiler body
Begin reassembly (You will probably need the services of a skilled witchdoctor. If a witchdoctor is not available, walk three times around the oiler backwards, sacrifice a chicken, and only perform reassembly under the light of a full moon.)
Place pumps back into the oiler body. The eccentrics will probably fall apart. The eccentrics have two notches on each end so that they can drive the next eccentric down the line. They only mate up one way.
Thread the drive rod back through the pumps
Reassemble ratchet
Test oiler to make sure it doesn't have any "sticky spots". If it does, that means one of the pumps is binding. The gears on the pump are probably a tooth out of synchronization. Pull everything apart again, find the incorrectly reassembled pump, and put it all back together. If it still doesn't work, you've gotta do it yet again.
After making sure the oiler turns over smoothly, put on the top cover. Putting on the top cover involves not only putting it back over those pot-metal oil cups again, but also making sure the oil feed adjusters are all properly aligned. The oil feed is adjusted by a long rod from the oil pump that has a rectangular end. This end mates into a knurled and slotted adjusting knob that is fixed to the top cover. These long rods are not mounted perfectly rigid onto the oiler body, and they will always be misaligned when you go to put the cover on. Between trying to get all the oil cups to line up with their respective holes and aligning the adjusting rods, putting the top cover on is MISERBLE. I have fought some for over 3 hours.
Also, since you're disassembling so many things, there are many parts that can fall into the depths of the oiler. If something falls in halfway through the assembly process, you've gotta pull it all apart AGAIN to get that piece out.