GE Frame 7EA number 1 bearing thermocouples secret

I have not searched control.com. I am too tired today.

I seek the "secret procedure" to dissassemble the TC oil seal that prevents oil from following the oil down the TC cables. The "packing gland fitting" that I named it today is very small description of what I really call it.

Depending on which bearing you are working on it can be a two wire device or a four wire device. It consists of a ceramic and then a graphite and then another ceramic and then a pinned packing gland device which will crush the ceramic, graphite, ceramic and seal the wires. Installation is pretty easy.

Removal is a nightmare on the 4 wire glands.

I seek the secret procedure for the removal of the graphite seal and the second ceramic device.

Please excuse bad spelling or grammer. I have been sitting on the coupling shaft "digging" the graphite out with a pick all day. I accomplished my task on both turbines and new TCs are installed on bearing 1 journal, inactive thrust, and active thrust. Yet, I feel I need to seek the secret to prevent others from being a frustated as I was today.
 
A picture can be worth a thousand words.

(Maybe even two thousand of CSA's words!!!)

I m only familiar with the gland seal which used rubber corks which were compressed with the outer fitting and no one ever seemed to be able to make seal after reassembly. But, I've never seen one with ceramic bits.

So, I am following this one closely--hoping to find out what it might be.
 
CSA,

They are in fact CONAX 11-0019-001. The link you sent is similar except a ceramic follower is inserted, then a graphfoil seal, then another ceramic follower.

I did not have any spares to get a picture of. I have been told not to try to remove the fitting from the oil drain piping because it might destroy the existing wire that will be utilized to pull in the new wiring. Makes sense.

However, getting the graphfoil out and that second ceramic follower out is awful. I had hoped someone had found a trick or manufactured a special tool.

Thanks for your help CSA.
 
Curious_One,

Yes; I was thinking about the wires in behind, too. That would complicate things, if there wasn't enough length to accommodate the twists during removal AND allow you to try to push from behind once the fitting were out of the housing.

I will say this: Over the decades I have worked and commissioned GE-design heavy duty gas turbines the two (irrational) things Customers will withhold final payment or commercial acceptance over are oil leaks at the bearing housings and HMI display "problems." I have diligently struggled to find seals and make them work using all manner of work-arounds (like fiberglass tape and heat-shrink tubing and several different types of gland seals for just about every type of application). Some were better than others; the adhesive of the fiberglass tape just dissolves with the slightest bit of Lube Oil.... Because I was one of the last people to leave most sites the problem of leaky bearing housing electrical connections usually fell to me to try to get the Customer to sign the Commercial Acceptance agreement and I could usually manage to get it to seal long enough (48-72 hours) to get to the Business Class Lounge. After that, it becomes a warranty issue, and the millwrights/mechanics/mechanical T.A. would have to deal with it. (We won't discuss HMI displays and Commercial Acceptance in this thread....)

I have only had to contact Conax once, but I found them to be VERY helpful and even eager to help. I would have to imagine they have had this request before ("How do I disassemble the fitting EASILY?") and might have some suggestions. I was thinking of using a very long, coarse-threaded drywall screw to try to screw into a small hole drilled into the "ceramic" disc (is it more Teflon-like than ceramic?) and then put a big pair of Vise-Grips on the head of the screw and try to persuade the disc out. I would think, worst case, the disc would break into smaller pieces which might be easier to remove with a dental pick tool--but I don't really have a good sense of the area you have to work in and what the discs are really make of.

Anyway, thanks for the info! I'll keep my eyes and ears out for any information I might hear of or run across.
 
CSA,

Sorry for the delay on a reply. In the middle on big outage.

Contacted Conax. Next day reply from them.

No, they do not have a "special tool" to assist in removal. Like you, remove it and push the packing out from the back.
Can't be done!!!

I saved the "guts" from that thing and plan on designing a tool.

Never the less; have a wonderful day working on MKIV. I prefer MKI
 
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