Thanks Dan...and he is the only guy who has seen the parts in the flesh. Well back to the rebuild. Tonight's installment will be on rebuilding the piston. Please read carefully since this post has a question in it that I really want an answer to. As in the last post, let me reiterate that these pictures are for entertainment and personal interest. They are not intended to be a substitute for professional service on these machines.

The piston rebuild on an Olympia is the most gasket intensive step of the rebuild since we need to replace 5 gaskets and 5 circlips.



Now similar to other machines the main gaskets are around the piston. These are fairly large gaskets and installments of these are critical. These are V shaped and the goal here is to get them positioned with the Vs pointed away from each other.



This takes a bit of patience since the gaskets want to turn...in the wrong direction. The best tool that I have found to coax them into the right place is a straight scribe that I showed before on this post. This is also a great tool for fitting the piston back into the grouphead, since you need to compress the outer lip of the top gasket to get it inserted.



With both gaskets on, they look like this: (now I swear I was not trying for an artsy picture. Just happened to have the machine's schematics out to help with the gasket work....this is one of my favorite shots.)



With piston now complete, I get to ask my mystery question. This is the face of the piston. What are those 4 holes for? I have never seen this on another machine.

The only thing I can think of is they let a little water onto the seals to help lubricate them. Have you tried the factory?

srobinson wrote:CAUTION: Sunglasses may be needed for viewing the following pictures in this post.

Indeed! Beautiful job! Having lived with my Cremina for decades and knowing it will outlast me, I know it is well worth all the time and effort you have spent! Thanks for continuing to allow us to ride along...

Now to see if I can get it put back together without screwing up this great work.

None of us have any doubt of your success!



MichaelB
LMWDP #24

Olympia Cremina 67
Mazzer Mini
100% Thor Fittings (No plastic!)
----

Well time to get this thread going again. I apologize for the absence, but work at the end of the quarter is a bit consuming...and that pays the coffee bills.

Now in my last post I had left you with a bit of a riddle on the four holes on the piston and questioned their purpose. Well it turns out that they appear again in the design of the Olympia.

So the next step in rebuilding the head is to insert the piston shaft gasket:



Followed by a brass washer with those 4 holes again.



My belief is that what these holes on both the piston and on this washer do is allow water to be used to flare out the gaskets to give them a tighter fit when on the downstroke and in turn allow the gaskets to compress in the opposite direction thus allowing for a much smoother upstroke than I have seen on other machines.

OK, calling all Olympia 67 owners. I need some help double checking some wiring.

I finally got my parts from Switzerland for a new heating element and new switches and I rewired based on how I got the machine. Now while I have the boiler rolling, I cannot get the status light to fire up. Before I dig out my probe, I wanted to see if any of you could double check my wiring so see if I am doing something stupid. This is one of my last frustrations before I simply start from scratch and rewire it.

Here are a couple pics of how I have it wired:


Off the boiler:



Off the switch and status light:


and off the pressurestat:



sorry that last pic is fuzzy..was in a rush. blue in the back, white in the front.

Would appreciate any quick check before I burn some hours on it. Also note that the new heating element does not require a ground like before.

Many thanks.

Hey Steve -

Here's the scoop -

From the power cord from the wall, I have brown, light blue and yellow/green. Brown goes to the rocker switch right side, light blue next to it on the left - yellow/green looks like a ground. My rocker switch has 4 prongs on top and 4 on bottom - so from left to right on top you have Light Blue, blank prong, blank prong and then Brown.

On the bottom of my rocker switch I have 4 prongs, and they go from left to right - blank prong, white (double wire), dark blue and blank prong.

Ok - white and dark blue of the bottom rocker head down to the boiler bottom with new brown (not to be confused with power cord in brown). Second white off bottom rocker goes up to LED light and the other side of LED light connects to new brown (mentioned above) and heads down to boiler.

So, down on the boiler we've got our three colors from the rocker - White, Dark Blue and New Brown. We also have red, which comes over from the pressure switch with the adjuster knob.

So - White from bottom rocker is connected to one of the heater element and ends there. Then New Brown goes to other heater element and then from there to one side of the thermal fuse (blue guy with red button on it to make sure the thing won't over heat [though I don't trust it!]).

Out of the other side of the thermal fuse we pick up Red Wire. Read goes over pressure switch.... My pressure switch has two prongs out of the bottom and one facing toward the front of the machine... The two on the bottom are aligned front to back - and red wire connects to the one furthest back (closest to the back of the machine where your snazzy Olympia logo will be!). Now, Dark Blue connects to the front (single) tab on the pressure switch.

The only other thing I have is the yellow/green that grounds by the rocker switch, also grounds on the bottom of the boiler - but you don't have one of those so no worries....

Anyhow, I hope this makes sense and helps... If you want some pics, PM me.

Wallah!

Cremina 67 forever!! Woot!!
Pt

You are THE MAN!!! Many thanks. I had wired it exactly as it came to me and the whites were wrong....or at least my whites. Your descriptions were great. I now have heat and a light show.

Glad to hear it (or read it- as it were...)! Glad things are working - keep us all posted! I want pictures of Cremina cremma!

Patrick