Well, I'm making progress on my single group CMA lever.
Found it on Craigslist, it is badged as a "Faema Astor". Judging by the condition and it's backstory, it probably had pretty light duty over a lengthy career; I'm guessing they never cleaned it, didn't change seals, ran it without a softener, and probably didn't descale it.

However it's been pretty easy thus far. The spring is rusty. The rubber parts are pretty baked on. The bolts holding on the group came off easily. The bolts holding the boiler onto the frame were loose. The tubing that goes to the bottom sight glass broke off at the boiler, as it has done to several others here.

Simple Green is my new favorite cleaner - it really does an amazing job at cutting through years of neglected coffee goo.

I had to stop when it came to opening the boiler - I couldn't budge the bolts. They weren't rusty, but I had a hard time with it, and I didn't want to torque the boiler-to-frame connection by levering too hard.

Today I went out and bought an air powered impact wrench. Best tool ever! It made short work of the boiler bolts, and worked on a bunch of the fittings too.

At this point, I have to remove the bottom half of the safety valve (need a deeper socket), the T fitting that goes to the steam/gauge, scrape off the old gaskets, remove the sleeve from the group, disassemble the spring, soak the copper/brass bits in acid, repaint the frame, reassemble with new gaskets and give 'er a go!

Have fun....oh and pics would help.
My first impact wrench was a life changer.... all of a sudden no more sheared/stripped/broken bolts on old rusty gear. I now have 4 different ones.
A 18V small one for small screws/bolts,
an air 1/2" drive for most automotive applications (500ft/lb)...
a 3/4 " drive for bigger van/bus stuff (1000 ft/lb of torque)
a 1" drive for bus lug nuts etc (1400ft/lb)
oh and I just remembered #5 I have a Bosch SDS Plus hammer drill which will drive a 3/4" bit through concrete like butter.
Good tools really help speed thing up. If it is a poor craftsman who blames his tools, I should be rich. Would be too but spent it all on tools....including my espresso machines. (wake up tool) and rides (get to work/school tools)..

Okay, finally dumped the pictures from the phone.
Here's the new machine on the bench, awaiting teardown. I have all the side/top panels/drip tray, they're just off in this picture:


The group is a little...um...greasy. Filthy.


MMmm, mmm, can you taste it yet? Imagine how this machine's last espresso must've been...


Most of the plumbing stripped out....


Ooops. The darn bottom sight-glass connection that has struck before


Frame standing by for painting. I think I'll use a black engine enamel. I wonder if one can will be enough.


Got the boiler open. Most of the crud has been poured out into the trash. I should have saved it to show how much crud came out of the boiler. I find it odd that the drain plug sticks up into the boiler, so it's pretty impossible to drain the whole boiler that way.


And here it sits, a box of parts waiting for me to order new seals and some citric acid.

Interesting that it's badged Faema. Looks exactly like my two group Astoria. One can of paint will be plenty. OE will have the parts you need.

I think it was one of many re-badge Astoria machines. There was (is?) a company back east called Faema, a distributor, and this causes quite a bit of confusion on Faema this and that machines which aren't FAEMA. CMA will still re-badge to suit but I do not know the minimum number of machines required for a distributor designation badge....would be interesting to find out.

The sight glass fitting looks a bit difficult but otherwise things seem pretty normal for a 30 year old ill maintained machine. I can't explain the logic on the small stand pipe for the boiler drain.

Clint Orchuk wrote:Interesting that it's badged Faema. Looks exactly like my two group Astoria.

Hi Clint, it looks almost exactly like your Astoria and it looks even more almost exactly like my No Name Twin Lever. The difference is in the groups. The Astoria group has an "hour glass" (?) figure and this one is a straight cylinder in the same section. From what I have read this makes allon's the Wega and similar group....

oops now I am confused...
I double checked by googling and espresso parts dot com has them listed otherwise
Astoria http://130.94.132.34/LeverGroup
and Wega http://www.espressoparts.com/WegaLeverGroup
In the case of Espresso parts they seem to think the hour glass group is the Wega....everywhere else I have looked previously it was visa versa. This is probably all full geek out fussiness on my part as a casual look at both group breakdowns shows that they seem to share all the same parts...just the Astoria has the none straight sided group....
The only reason I notice this stuff is my no name twin needs a name so I pay attention to similar groups

I think Flint's (Chert's) machine (no name?) has the straight sided bells also. I think you're right in that all the internals are the same.

I love those curvy groups. I still can't believe that the maker hid them behind those big, ugly bulwarks. I'm hoping to finish my mods completely soon so that the groups are out there for all to see.

Yup, identical to my lever too. Rebadged as a LaCremoka. Same straight-sided group head as well. I really dislike how the whole grouphead is hidden but I just left off the very top metalwork and left thefront piece in place. But my group doesn't have the bell/chimney piece that the staddles the lever on top of the piston...odd.
I think the real beauty is how there is an internal sleeve that can be replaced if needed, very cost friendly, unlike some other brands.
Have fun with it. You'll love it.

#222

Just a quick update...

I still need to order my parts, still trying to locate that tube from the boiler to the lower sight glass
I managed to get the sleeve out of the group - a rubber mallet against the sleeve whacked with a hammer did a great job getting it loose, but getting it the last bit of the way was a challenge, until found a way to grip the sleeve and twist/pull it out - I have a panavise with the 366 head. I closed the vise jaws, slipped the group/sleeve over the jaws, then opened them to squeeze against the walls of the sleeve; the rubber covers on the jaws gave it a good grip and I was able to twist and pull out the sleeve.

The sleeve had a suprising amount of coffee gook where it didn't belong, no doubt due to poor seals that had probably never been replaced. It has formed a gummy coat all over the outside of the sleeve - soaking in backflush solution didn't do much; simple green helped some, scrubbing it with a scotch brite a bit more, but it's still kinda dingy. I'll have to soak it in descaler anyway to get the scaly crust out of the holes.

I got the last fittings off of the boiler with a bit of heat and penetrating lubricant.

Trying to get the piston off of the shaft to get the spring off. I have it soaking in some penetrating lubricant, and may try some more this weekend. I took a mild steel bar (came from a filing cabinet, they give it to you with other bits for hanging files) and drilled a couple of holes 1" apart, tapped 'em , and fitted them with rack screws to make a lever that fits in the holes in the bottom of the piston. But it seems pretty stuck, what with all the rust from the spring.

Next on my list is to dismantle the steam valve, water valve, and inlet valve to make sure I have the right seals on my list to order.

Don't worry about getting the piston off of the shaft. Just unscrew the knuckle from the other end. The piston is on the shaft with uber loctite and it's not worth damaging the brass trying to get it off. My piston cleaned up nice with a wire wheel.