1981/06/22 Caterpillar

Cylinder liners can now be honed and cleaned automatically with the FT1528 Liner Honing Machine and FT1524 Tub Assembly (Illustration 1). This machine will recondition four cylinder liners at the same time and put the correct crosshatch pattern on the liner bores (Illustration 2). This pattern gives the best combination of wear resistance and oil control.

Until now, cylinder liners had to be honed manually using a 12 mm (1/2") drill and a FLEX-HONE. This method gives good results, but it takes much longer than the automatic method, and the crosshatch pattern is often not consistent. For complete information on manual FLEX-HONE operations, use the Guideline For Reusable Parts "Pistons and Cylinder Liners," Form SEBF8001-01.

Two FT1524 Tub Assemblies and six cylinder liner plates are needed to use the FT1528 Liner Honing Machine. The cylinder liner plates are necessary to hold liners with 4.0", 4.5", 4.75", 5.4", 5.75", and 6.25" bores. The correct cylinder liner plate is put into one of the tubs and the liners are installed through the holes of the plate. The tub must be filled with enough light petroleum-based cleaning solvent or kerosene to keep the bottom 25.4 mm (1") of the liners under the oil solvent. The tub with the four liners is then pushed into position in the honing machine, and the liners are honed for 30-60 seconds.

After the liners are honed, the tub is removed from the liner machine. The liner plate is lifted from the tub with the cylinder liners in place and put into the second tub. This tub must be filled with a detergent and water solution. Again, the bottom 25.4 mm (1") of the liners must be under the detergent solution. The Flex-Hones are then replaced by nylon cleaning brushes. The cylinder liners are cleaned for 1 to 2 minutes, or until all debris is removed. Use a clean white cloth to dry the liners. If debris is on the cloth, the cylinder liners must be cleaned again. After the liners have become dry, the application of a rust preventative is recommended, even if the liners will not be stored for a long period of time.

Illustration 1. FT1528 Liner Honing Machine and FT1524 Tub Assembly.

Illustration 2. Cylinder liner crosshatch pattern.

The complete operation to automatically hone and clean the cylinder liners with the FT1528 Liner Honing Machine takes approximately 10 minutes. The same operation done manually takes about half an hour.

The drawings for the FT1528 Liner Honing Machine and the FT1524 Tub Assembly can be ordered from division service managers. If dealers do not want to make their own machine, it can be ordered as a fabricated unit complete with liner tubs and plates from: