by josef_k on Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:40 am This is my first time posting here so forgive me if I step on any rules I'm unaware of. I've been using posts here as a good resource to figuring things out since I first got my nth-hand La Cimbali Junior about a year and a half ago. I've finally hit a wall though, and can't find mention of this specific problem anywhere.
Over the Christmas break, I decided it would be a good idea to descale the machine. So I bought some descaler, and ran it through the machine as per the instructions it came with. All seemed to be going well enough, until I actually tried to pull some shots to get the last of the descaler out. There was obviously a leak somewhere around the grouphead, and when I pulled off the top, I noticed that it was at the join where the solenoid attaches to the group, just on one side. I suspect that there was some kind of gunk sealing things in place that got flushed out in the descaling.
What I'm not sure about is what these components are supposed to look like when they're able to operate correctly. Can someone take a look at these photos and tell me whether the solenoid needs replacing, the group needs replacing (I really hope not), or I can get by just adding some sort of sealant somewhere. At first I actually noticed that two of the four screws that hold the solenoid in place were missing (this was an eBay purchase, after all). I replaced all four, but unfortunately it changed nothing.
This is the first espresso machine I've ever owned, so I'm pretty new to the specifics of the inner workings of things, and am mostly just stumbling through by reading through forum posts!
After getting it open to take these photos I realised the whole thing needs a good tear down and soak anyway, and that I hadn't got all the descaler out in my half hour or so of flushing. (Which I suspect is due to the way that the boiler must be filled manually with the button on the front—but again, really not sure) The large component on right side of the boiler that doesn't appear in any coffeeparts diagram is completely covered in that white/ green calcium buildup, for instance.
Would be awesome if someone could point me to a good schematic, or at least a discussion on here that has some particularly descriptive pictures, as it would be great to have something to compare with, to see if there's anything else glaringly wrong with the internal setup. Feel bad for not doing the legwork, but there are a lot of posts about the Junior around. It's a bit hard to sort through to find the comprehensive ones.
Sorry for going on and on, here are some pictures. I hope I haven't put up too many.
Cheers,
Joe
