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January 2006: We finally contacted the owner of this beast, now it's time for an inspection. The first thing we checked was the engine. Sadly, we found coolant in the oil. that is usually a sign of trouble. The engine wasn't seized up, that's a good sign?This is almost the same as our other crane Helga. |
| The cab is in rough shape. A few of the windows are knocked out. |  |
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The tracks appear to be in good shape. I didn't see any pivot pins missing. |
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A shot of the boom. It looks like it could be 60 feet or so??
June: I crawled half way up the boom with a tape. The 2 sections look to be about 25 feet each, with a 5 foot section in the middle, so the 60 foot guess is pretty close! |
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The large drive gear for the horizontal drum shaft.
The reverse shaft clutches are seized. I had to back off the adjusters to get them to break free. |
| Here is the engine. A huge 6 cylinder Murphy Diesel. I hear it's about 100 HP at 1,200 RPM. Now that's a lot of torque! |  |
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The front view of the Murphy, she's a little sloppy looking.
The starter is missing, I'm looking for one so I can try out the engine. The cylinder liners are a wet sleeve like our dozer. It had the same troubles, which turned out to be fairly easy to fix, just replace the liner O-rings! The parts are still available for the engine, a Murphy Diesel Inc. MP20. Now we have to see if we can negotiate a deal with the owner. |
| The clamshell bucket made by Owen. I don't know what size it is. |  |
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June: We got the old guy to move!
We found a starter, built battery cables, and did a 12 gallon oil change, now we're ready to fire him up. Yahoo! After many trips we finally got the old Murphy started. It seems to run good, and I don't see any signs of coolant in the oil (yet). We have everything working except for the boom hoist, that's next on the list to fix. |
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Most everything works once we broke it free. We used a ton of Kroil to free things up, that stuff is the best!
Here are the levers for the travel. The #3 lever selects travel power. I'm not sure what 1 & 2 do yet? |
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This is the travel gearing, #3 is the jaw clutch to direct power down into the travel base.
We still don't know what #1 & #2 do. Have any clues, drop us a line |
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I'm always on the prowl for new toys. I spotted this one about 5 years ago, sitting in an abandoned business. I put off contacting the owners for several years, until recently I saw some workers clearing the yard of debris. Curious, I called the real estate agent who put me in contact with the owner. He said to roll by and check it over, the gate is always open. One cold day in January of 2006 I decided it was time to look it over. The crane seems to be in good shape. The tracks look tight, the clutches seem okay, the gear teeth aren't worn bad? It looked like a nice machine! I checked the engine oil, it was dark but not too bad. I did notice it was over full, and that's an indicator of trouble. I open the valve on the oil pan pipe (the drain plugs on cranes are buried) and heard a splash in my drain pan, cold oil doesn't splash, it was coolant! I drained about a half gallon of coolant from the oil. I check out the rest of the machine, and went back to see if I could locate the source of the leak. The coolant in the pan was bright green, it didn't seem like it was a frozen engine break. The blocks on Murphy diesels are very heavy (the engine weighs over 4,000 pounds) The radiator seemed solid, the oil cooler might be the problem? The oil cooler is below the radiator. After thinking about if for a minute, I figured if the oil cooler was leaking, it would have drained the radiator to the level of the leak. My next task was to determine the level in the radiator. I loosened hoses until I found coolant, it looks like the coolant level was down to about the head gasket area. My best guesses are; a liner seal is bad, a head gasket is cracked, or a casting is split. I had some cylinder liner seals go bad on my dozer that allowed coolant into the oil. If either the gasket or the liners turns out to be the problem, the Murphys' look like the are made to service in place. The block has "hand holes" in the side to allow access to the crankpins without dropping the oil pan. One issue might be how to lift off the head, it looks like it could weigh a few hundred pounds! Parts are still available for the engine, I contacted Murphy Diesel Inc. in Mulberry, FL. They still have parts for the old girl. The head gasket is over $260, and the O-rings are a bit pricey too. I did order a MP series shop manual, it covers both this and the engine in Helga too. John the owner told me it would be smart to change the oil and start it up before removing the head. Then open up the hand holes in the side of the block to look for coolant. June 2006, I finally got enough oil to do a change, that was a messy job. I found a starter that I could borrow, and built some heavy gauge battery cables. I gave the engine a crank, we have oil pressure, but it still wouldn't fire. There is no way to prime the fuel system, so I took the belt off of the fuel pump, and spun it by hand. After bleeding all of the air out of the fuel system, I tried to crank it again. This time I heard it knock, then a few more, and then it was off and running! Once it got going it sounded pretty good. With the engine going I tried the 2 cable winches for the bucket, they both work dandy. Then I re-adjusted the reverser clutches and tried a few things. The swing worked okay, the travel and boom hoist are frozen up. A bit of Kroil fixed the travel, now I have to tackle the boom hoist. More to come! |
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