Hello,
I am rebuilding an Astoria machine called the AEP-1 that is not exactly the same as yours but it seems that CMA (the make of Astoria and some other brands) uses the same parts over and over again. So there's a chance that yours is quite similar to mine. I have contributed to a thread on the forum named
"Astoria 1 Group Renewal".
My sight glass was difficult to get out. Here were some of my issues:
1) getting good tools in there is hard.
2) i couldn't get any part of it the sight glass assembly out unless fully disassembled
3) depending on the age of your machine, the rubber gasket may have completely fused to the glass and brass elbow rendering movement impossible unless the glass breaks. Some may challenge the use of the word impossible, but I'm sticking with it. Patience may be overrated here.
My advice if it's like mine...and assuming that you're good with this kind of mechanical activity...
- unplug it. put the cord end where you can see it.
- make it cold.
- turn off the water.
- yank the right side panel. this may involve some other panels.
- if there is something substantial in the way, it'll need to be removed. i didn't have one.
- pull out the white metal curved thing.
- yank both the supply and return lines to the sight glass. they go to the boiler. water will come out if it's full.
- leave the nuts holding the elbows to the frame tight.
- try to loosen the elbow nuts. maybe squirt some food appropriate solvent on them and watch some CSI.
- try to loosen. if it does, take it out.
- otherwise break the glass and tear it all apart. clean everything and re-assemble.
- i used a torch to remove obstinate chunks of rubber gasket and a silicone lube to make putting it back together easy
- tighten things up. double check them. use good machine re-assembly cautions upon firing it back up.
that help?
WES
by Colorado_Espresso on Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:06 am 
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