The Essex Rotary “Wall of Pain!” will become our home for pictures of some epic Rotary engine failures.
Stay tuned for updates and pictures of destruction.
03/10/2013 Bearing Failure.
These pictures where taken from an engine that was build by another “specialist” that shall remain nameless and had only done 10’000 miles before if developed what was suspected as bearing failure, When they refused to honor the warranty they gave with it. The owner got it dropped of with us to take care of the job for the rebuild.
We started by removing the sump and where greeted with the carnage of copper.
Upon removal of the rear stationary gear the amount of copper swarf from the bearing was shocking. we where surprised to note that the rear stationary gear was not the cause of the problem.
Looking further in we could see that the bearing on the rear rotor had not been pressed properly and had spun. The Larger red circle highlights where the locator lug (in the smaller red circle) should be located and pressed home, Its clean this was not done.
After struggling to get the center iron off it was the same story on the front rotor however this time the eccentric shaft was practically stuck in the rotor. once removed the carnage was just as bad. this had spun too.
To top this all off, we found three separate instances of pinched water seals that must have caused coolant leaks in to the combustion chambers.
Two of these where on either side of the same rotor housing. and the last on the front iron. Its shocking just how bad this engine was built.
