Hi

Well I know Sam has a great thread going on one of these but i thought I might add my own because I also recently got one of these and I decided to do a small rebuild of it to bring it back to peak condition.

Here is a picture of when I got it.



So this one is a little different to some of the others around. It has the more modern strait through hx rather than the horse shoe hx like Sam's. Not sure what the effect of this is but when it's back to full health I will do some comparative testing against Sam's results.

So once I got it I had a good look and ordered a bunch of parts. it seems to have had a good life. It came from a lady who said it was her deceased uncles and hasn't been used in a while. It seems true, there was a little water in the boiler and it's meant one of the bolts has crumbled needing replacement. Has anyone taken the boiler plate off one of these (or something like it I guess). Is it just a normal bolt or is the bolt welded to the inside of the boiler. I am sure it would be easy to work out if I could get the boiler plate off! Here is a picture:


Any suggestions on how to get the plate off? Maybe pry the gasket? I will soak it for a day or two see if that helps.

Next issue: the manual fill valve. Sam's was stuck too. He was able to open his up and free the spring. I could only do the bolt on one side and cannot access the spring. I can see that it's full of scale so I will soak it in citric acid solution and see if it frees it up.



Lastly! The sirai pressure stat has a little rust seems to be just the membrane - looks like it could use a new membrane but I am comfident the pressure stat is ok. And suggestions?



Other than that - I will stop and powder coat the frame to remove a little rust - then see how we go with a power up!

Here is another view of the pressure stat that's rusted.

Hi Keir,

Good to see quite a few of the Auroras are all suddenly reappearing. It must be Aurora's season now.

The boiler plate should come off just like that (based on my research but I haven't taken mine off). It was originally secured by the nuts (which you have removed in the pic). So yeah, just soak and pry - or use a blade. They're probably just baked together due to age.

For the manual fill nut, it'll be helpful if you have a big adjustable wrench (to apply more torque properly without risking slipping). I undid it with the valve body secured on the frame body (the pipes were removed). That helped to 'hold' the valve and allow me to apply torque. However, this method won't work if they're stuck by scale real hard - may risk bending the frame or something else.

No help here on the Sirai unfortunately. But your proposal seems logical. Or, just get rid of it and upgrade to PID! You may be surprised PID is cheaper than your membrane replacement!

I now realize how lucky I was with my purchase and it could have gotten worse than it was. But I'm sure you will get it into shape real soon!

Thanks - yeah I'm not sure I want a pid on a hx... I think it might just cycle too much. I will look into it though.

I think it probably seems worse than it sounds, everything else is pristine - I think it's basically been used for a bit then stored for too long. I think the rebuild work is still pretty simple and Cost wise should be 1-200. I think it would probably work ok as it was - but for peace of mind it was worth a look. I was surprised about the rusted bolt - I might just put 9 stainless bolts in and be done with it.

I will give the water fill valve a go in a day or so.

Any update on the progress? Looking forward to the day she's back in service I'm very happy with mine and mostly nailed down the right techniques for my Aurora. Am curious how it compares to a straight hx version since there isn't much info around.

I'm really interested by your restoration. I have the opportunity to restore one of these old ladies... I'm just wondering how do you deal with parts availability: I contacted Aurora and some providers that used to deal with Aurora, I have the impression that it is almost impossible to find parts for these levers, am I unfortunately right ?

Hi Seb,

I didn't have to do a restoration, but I have changed out almost all the wear & tear parts (not that many really) and they're all available no problem.

Grouphead specific parts:

Group head uses Faema's W and V piston gasket so that's easily obtainable since there're plenty of Faemas out there in service. This is the only part that I see requires replacement every few years and it's easily available without digging hard (located at least 2 sources - Coffeeparts & DIamond C).

Group-to-boiler part measures 78x42x2 mm and seems to be a common gasket available from Diamond C, Coffeeparts and Cafeparts.

Not sure if Aurora shares the spring with other groups, but I've gotten it from Diamond C in Australia. I was almost ready to get it from Europe as well but turns out it wasn't needed. Here's the European source for the spring: http://www.tse.at/de/shop/product_info/ ... gruppe.htm

There's a port at the rear of the grouphead, which was supposedly be the flow regulator (with a metal ball inside). There's two gaskets there - one on the outside, one on the inside. I've obtained both from Diamond C (which seems to source direct from Brugnetti or someone directly in the oversea), and they're just common gasket size & material. I've managed to skip the gaskets and teflon tape works just fine (eventually put a proper gasket when I received them from Diamond C).

Group gasket(72x56x9 mm) and showerscreen (57.5mm shower screen with no center screw holes) were common parts from other machines.

Portafilter from La Marzocco (and possibly E61) fits as reported by others. I manage to fit a Silvia's bottomless pf, but it locks a bit further (4'O clock vs 6'O clock)

Aurora's specific part:

One of the parts unique to Aurora is the water fill piece feeding to HX and boiler(aka the manual fill valve shown by OP). There're 3 gaskets here. The gaskets seems to be available from Diamond C, but they're all common gasket materials.

The only part I didn't get to is the heating element and boiler gasket. I believe it shares the same boiler gasket as some other Brugnetti pump machine(Coffeeparts has it). The element however, seems to be unique to Aurora because the element mounting(or lack thereof) is a bit different than in the catalog. Something like this may fit but I haven't had to replace it yet(touch wood!). http://www.coffeeparts.com.au/300023-he ... 220v-200mm Alternatively, I think you could ask the suppliers or drill the boiler plate to retrofit.

Others
Other than that(I may have missed some), most of the Aurora parts seems to be shared by the pump version(still in production and in service today). For example the sight glass, steam/hot water valve(which I believe to use generic gaskets, at least similar to Wega machine). The steam valve body is just a 3/8 tap, so it is possible to retrofit with a swivel steam wand (as I did with a Profitec/ECM wand). Mostly common parts and 'fortunately' the Aurora seems to be a machine put together with bits and pieces(in terms of consumables) from other machines.

Lastly, you may find this helpful:
http://b2b.lfspareparts724.com/public/m ... 270910.PDF

But of course if you're looking for the non-wear & tear parts (ie boiler tubing, missing parts, drip tray, grate etc) that may be slightly more difficult and will probably have to do your own modification.

Wow Sam, thanks a lot... that's much more information than I expected.

One last question: does the lever arm thread is common to other lever groups ? I have one broken with the end stuck in the thread that I need to replace.

pootoogoo wrote:Wow Sam, thanks a lot... that's much more information than I expected.

Haha! I sorta dumped everything I learnt from the process here : i) as a documentation in case I have forgetful memory later, and ii) hopefully help other Aurora owners in the process.

Not sure about the thread size. I can check for you later.

And you need to post some pictures somehow! Which version was it and was it orange/black color or red/black?