The
injector water valves on the Feldbahn (and maybe later Stafford's) have
been moved about an inch towards the boiler compared with those on my
early Stafford 'Gentoo'. This may not sound like a lot but it
meant that when operating the water valves your fingers were closer to
the very hot firebox, and I thought that there was a risk of
junior drivers inadvertently burning themselves. Since the
water
valves could not be moved backwards I removed the original (rather
plasticky) looking levers and fitted much longer ones.
The
water valve spindle is square and I hate trying to cut square holes
through anything so I chose to drill the new bosses to just fit over
the corners of the square spindles. An M5 bolt through the
top of
the boss holds it onto the spindle while an M6 grub screw in the side
stops the boss rotating on the square spindle. The lever is
1/4"
diameter stainless steel threaded M6 to screw into the boss, and the
tapped hole in the boss is deliberately angled so that the lever angles
up away from the footplate to make it easier to use.
A quick
and simple modification to keep your fingers cooler, and to several
Pinewood members better looking than the original levers.
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