Progress:

So I didn't get a chance to get the compressor setup to soda blast. But the brass brushes did the trick. It was alot easier to remove the black soot from the boiler when I kept things wet. It did take a few hours work and a few cordless battery recharges.




Here is the element cleaned up:



All this cleaning got me thinking. I assume these are brass boilers with copper internal plating. When did Olympia switch to stainless steel boilers?

Now just have to wait for my seals and gaskets to arrive. I will work on the group next.

Leveraddict wrote:All this cleaning got me thinking. I assume these are brass boilers with copper internal plating. When did Olympia switch to stainless steel boilers?

My 1990 Olympia Coffex has a brass boiler that's chrome plated. That seems to be what you've got.

I decided to tackle the group. I used an irwin clamp and old sock so not to scratch the chrome. The Club spring is much longer and thinner than my sama export and faemina piston spring. However still just as powerful. The showerscreen went flying across the workshop when I tapped the top of the piston with the mallet.

Cafetto is essentially glorified napisan (Sodium Percarbonate) but much cheaper. I mixed a capful in boiling water and soaked the parts in it:



I used citric acid for the internal parts.



There was still some grease so I decided to put all the parts in the dishwasher. Instead of using dishwashing powder I just put in napisan. Everything came out squeaky clean. The chrome drippans and group are now incredibly shiny. Alot easier than scrubbing:





I wonder if anyone else here use there dishwasher with napisan or something similar to clean coffee parts? It is dead cheap and can be purchased in the laundry aisle of any supermarket. I haven't gone so far as backflushing my machines with the stuff just yet.

I decided to bake the element and I tested it out with the multimeter. No short and consistent ohm reading. Looks promising.



My seal kit arrived from switzerland including hard to come by boiler gasket and replacement mater pressurestat



I changed the group seals making sure I had them the right way round.

I've reconnected everything. Yippeee Barbara the element works!!

Now here is the stumbling block. Water is leaking around the boiler gasket when I reach 1.5 bars.



As you can see the drips of water collecting in the bottom of the machine. Anyone have any ideas of a fix? The boiler screws are pretty tight. I was thinking maybe gasket glue but the only ones I've seen are for engine blocks and they are not food grade.



I do have some loxeal which is food grade and good for leaks around screws and copper connections but never tried it on gaskets. Would this stuff work on the fibre gasket? I don't want to stuff up the gasket as I will only get one bite at the cherry.

Remove the cover & try to find what is causing the leak. You might have a raised area around the bolt holes either on the boiler top or cover. If you do smooth it out with a hand file. If there is a gouge/scratch or low area you could fill it with JB Weld. If both sealing surfaces are smooth check to see if the cover is warped.

I took the boiler apart again and polished both surfaces. It looked pretty clean but I used a pick tool to dig the groove around the boiler surface until I could see visible brass all the way around. Reassembled everything and NO LEAKS!!! It seems having a clean groove is the critical bit to keeping the seals under pressure.

I've been working on rebuilding the wiring. The insulation on the wiring has hardened and exposed in areas. I've wrapped plumbing teflon tap around an old kettle cord and then placed heat shrink wrap over it to create my own grommet.



If you are curious here is the Olympia Club wiring diagram:




I probably have over engineered it. But I've covered house electrical cable in teflon insulation. I've used heat resistant spade connectors. Both I got reasonably cheap from the bay of evil. The black and yellow cables are the original wires.

What you need is Cordgrip Clamps. Jcar and any electrical place have them.

All to often on many forums you see people taking short cuts or failing to understand the need for electrical standards/safety. Some where here only yesterday a question of "do you need an earth to run". Short answer = Yes and NO. But the NO carries significant risk to life and limb.

I fail to see the risk of causing damage to a machine, your house or ones life, as worthy of not using the right materials.

As an aside, in Australia it is also breach of state and federal laws and regs for a non electrical qualified person to perform electrical repairs and to then connect to the mains or other power supply; without it being first tested by an electrical person.

As said by many others on this forum... Safety is critical when repairing and or performing any work on coffee machines. It is all mains and 110V or 240V it does not matter; either will kill you, if given half a chance.