Nike SF-88 On-going Maintenance

Alec has been trying to locate the hydraulic leak using the by guess and by golly method. with no luck. So today I brought in a small video camera. We taped it to a stick and stuck it into the access opening where the hydraulic lines are.
I operated the launcher cycling it while Alec held the stick.
The first few times we could not view anything.
On the 5th try we had the camera aimed at the right area and saw a stream of fluid coming out of an elbow coupling on one of the lines. You only had 3 seconds to notice it before the video went foggy with vaporized hydraulic fluid.
So now we know the culprit.

We had Sandia Lab
come out last Friday. This group was managers of the WIP program. Not many questions where asked.

They enjoyed the tour.

This Friday, My Daughter's employer will be coming out for a tour.
It is the 63rd USAR Division from Mountain View.
There should be 30 people on that tour, but my daughter will miss it because she is in a training class.

Here is a link to that unit,
https://www.usar.army.mil/63rdRD/
Which is the Headquarters for every Army Reserve unit in California.

Funny thing, My Father was also a supply officer to the same USAR Division in Los Angeles at Ft, Mac Arthur.

Small World, He would have been happy to see his Grand Daughter working for the same unit if he was still around.

Also one of the officers requested to have a promotion ceremony for his promotion to Major.
I will send you pictures after the fact.

Rain is predicted on Friday so we hope that goes well.

That's all the news that is fit to print.......

Cheers !

Greg

Many people came to see the missile that won't go up.

Below are pictures of the previous displays in the Assembly Building (before "Susan" took them away {somewhere} for "safe keeping".}

"small items, including a 12" hydrogen thyratron (lower right)

Launcher Control cabinets

Time potentiometer

They have given us "special permission to do the launcher repair" I had to give them a detailed report on how we would do the repair and the steps taken. This practice is the norm today, they call it a JHA, Job Hazard Analysis form.

Alec and I were out today to fix the hydraulic leak in the launcher arm. 2 line sections were changed with no success.

We had a Air Force ICBM unit tour SF-88 on Friday, from Warren AFB Wyoming.
It was raining and they were late, but it turned out to be a good tour.
In the center of the picture is our new, leader, Ranger Vassar.

But before the visit, we had an inspection from several of the park management types.
This is an outcome of the earlier meeting that we had back on November 15.
Our message was the museum pieces were deteriorating, and we were not receiving funds to do preventative maintenance, or repairs. We also mentioned we weren't getting any younger and soon the maintenance department would be holding the bag. So a succession plan would be a good idea, to train the maintenance staff. I have been working on a SF-88 maintenance guide with our Army TM's and written instructions and pictures.

We were expecting the worst, but in talking to the new Volunteer Maintenance Coordinator, Amanda Williford, and the park Historic Architect,
They seemed sincere in giving us the help we need.
They do want B pit cleaned up.
I told them we want it cleaned up too, but we can't keep up with the equipment breakdowns.
Also we need a dumpster to get rid of unwanted items.

They also do not want us to do any work until we have had training.
Like mowing the grass. They will give us a training session and then we can mow the grass.
It is protection for them if someone gets hurt.
You can't say we weren't trained.

Alec and I have been working trying to repair a hydraulic leak in the launcher arm.
There are 4 (each) 1/4 inch lines in the arms. somewhere there is a leak, but under 2200 PSI the hydraulic fluid sprays out like a fog, making it hard to see where the leak is coming from.
The launcher will raise and lower. It just leaks fluid.

Greg

There is a new problem, the launcher is leaking hydraulic fluid, inside the lifting arm.
This is the second week we have been working on the problem.

There are 4 each, 1/4" inch lines. We replaced one line last week, but that did not fix the problem.

Because the fluid is under high pressure, it sprays a fog of fluid, so everything gets drenched.
Hard to tell where the leak is coming from.

Alec brought some wrenches that he cut short, so to access the inside of the launcher arm.
We found we needed some crows foot sockets that might work better in the tight access.

Enclosed are a few pictures and a movie which is 25 MB and may be viewed on google drive link. look at the fluid running out of the hole on the bottom of the launcher arm.

Movie, 17 seconds, 18.2 MBytes Launcher Sprays Hydraulic Fluid - January 8, 2024

Alec doing something -

But last Thursday we were sidetracked for an “emergency repair“ . The launcher would not go up. It needed fluid. Which is a 2 person job and requires patience. You can only add a little fluid at a time and then need to open the vent valve to “burp the baby”. Fluid was added and the launcher would now go up.

Now that Covid is behind me. We are back to the sump pump. We had some wiring mysteries with the motor starter and found they had done a Micky mouse modification to the motor starter solenoid.

So we are trying to get the old Allen Bradley motor starter to work. If we strike out, we will have to put in a new motor starter.

Everything is working fine on the old submersible, which looks like the swamp thing when it is pulled out of the sump. (Full of Green Moss)

I had brought home several field telephones that were in storage in B pit. They were in bad shape, with much oxidation. Some had internal D cell batteries that had been in the units for years. The batteries swell up and leak acid. I had to screw a lag bolt into the battery to remove it, with much banging with a hammer.

They are now cleaned up. Most have frayed handset cords. I tried to get a pair to talk to each other. The hand crank ringers ring but only one could carry a conversation.

I did discover that there are spare parts for these on eBay. They are quite popular. Replacement Handset cords cost 25 bucks

Model TA 312/PT Field Telephone
https://fieldphones.org/episode27/

So there you go. The little dehumidifier you bought the site is now in the B pit blast room keeping things dry. It works very well.
The reservoir cup was full last week when I emptied it.

So there you are……Plenty of excitement for senior citizens,
Happy New Year !

Here are a few pics

Greg

Alec and I, along with Al Kellogg, have been up to our ears with B Pit Elevator problems.
I have been spending days with my head over the elevator prints, drawing out limit switches and relay circuits.

3 weeks of fighting with an elevator that would not respond to any command.

2 of the locking bars were retracted and 2 engaged.

On Wednesday, at the end of the day, I gave one last try in the control cabinet, and got lucky.

We got the elevator to lift, and come down on one bolt.

Alec suggested we get a ladder and climb up and spray the engaged bolt with liquid wrench.
I did just that and we tried again.

The bolt retracted and the elevator went down.

Bottom line is, these elevators need to be lubricated yearly. We lubricated the A pit a year ago, but who knows how many years have gone by since B pit doors got any grease?

So next Wednesday we will lubricate B pit.

It took us 4 working days to fix that failure.

And finally the Gods began to start smiling !

Greg

I built a small wooden stand for the tube.

Enclosed is the Manufactures spec from Eimac.

Apparently they still make these ? Classic design and the magnets are strong !

I did not mention, but box 19 at the Archives had some very good manuals on the Missile and internal workings of the booster

I had given Amanda much to copy. So I did not ask for that one.

I did talk a picture of 2 items from box 19

One is the the display of the nose cone that we have. Identification of the individual circuit cards.

Another is an Arming Mechanism Ohmmeter.

I found one is a pile of rotted and mouse pooped items on the storage cabinet at Battery Wallace.

Now I know what it is !

The best find was this nike elevator manual. It was in a separate collection, donated by Catherine Hanson

Cheers !

Greg

Al Kellogg showed up yesterday. We went up to battery Townsley to give the cable that we found there a try.
The connector pinout seemed the same, even though the cable part number was different.
It was twice the length of the original cable.
Al Kellogg unspooled it while Alec and I pulled it out into the parking lot.
We took it back to the site and plugged it in, just laying it on the floor, with the missile still in the pit.
The connectors fit and everything worked.

Now to get the new cable in the conduit. We had not removed the old one from the conduit.
We tried pulling it by hand in the blast room but it did not budge.

Using a come along, we pulled it and moved freely. We were almost complete. Then it got stuck on the final 90 degree turn. I could see the strain relief on the cable connector form the sump pit conduit.

We ran out of time.

So next time we will try to free the stuck cable.

Lots of soapy water around the stuck connector.

Greg

When we left off. The hydraulic motor pump was running when the LCI was turned off. I put a tone tracer from the pump relay coil wiring and did not find it anywhere in the LCI on/off switch ?

We know the Section Control Panel down in the pit has many control functions. We found that if we turn off the power on it. Nothing on the launcher works.

So today we looked at the Section control panel. We found the tone from the relay coil at several places in the panel. So we started to disconnect cables. On one of the cables I found tone on all pins coming from the launcher. That sounds like major trouble. So I told Alec, let's inspect the cabling.

We started with the elevator and the sump. And low and behold ! Major damage to the cable. It appears that on the desending of the elevator, the cable got pinched on the resting pylon. Alec said we had cables at Battery Townsend, so we went up to look for one with that number. We got lucky and found one. That is as far as we got today. Now to install the new cable in the conduit from the sump to the blast room. And to route the cable so it does not come near the pylon.

The fun never ends ..

Greg

Found 4 tracking scope lens cans.
Brought one home. Had to clean the mouse poop off if it in hot soapy water.
Thought of trying to rig up a green led range gate using adafruit 120 mm RGB panels and an Arduino.
Just a pipe dream, I really don’t have the time.

The missile had a problem over the weekend not being able to raise.
I heard something in the electronics was getting hot.

Amanda took away our manuals, so not much we can do.
Besides go down with the ship.

Click any of the following to expand -

WELCOME	Teresa & Greg Brown Presenter & Cook
Al Blank, host	One of three tables

Battery Alexander was taken over by the CPI or Concrete Preservation institute.
They cast concrete pieces for use at Alcatraz. The workers are mostly active military, on a jobs training program.

I have a good relationship with their supervisor.

They have taken over the battery and moved some of our stuff around.

It could be better organized but that is how it is.

We looked through everything. I took pictures.

We found your modified chassis with the CRT and circuit board.

Quite impressive. See how the damp conditions ruin the equipment.

Here are pics.

Saturday is the BBQ Picnic.

The B Pit air blower had a problem with the motor starter.
The motor starter is a 3 phase 480 volt contractor relay with a run switch (On/Off) and a remote local switch for external run. ( a remote switch on the wall).
The problem was the relay coil was not holding the contacts in strongly and the contacts were chattering. The coil was 460 volts.
I did not have a 460 volt coil to replace it with but did have a 120 volt coil.
Fortunately we had a small 120 volt to 460 volt control transformer.
So using the small control transformer to step down the voltage, I installed the 120 relay contractor coil and now the blower motor is running.

Duane has been welding in B pit so having a working blower motor is a good thing.

Repairs were done to do the John Deere riding mower to make it operational by Alec and myself 2 weeks ago.
Alec mowed the grass on Saturday, but weeds are growing in the pavement all over and in front of the assembly building.

I talked with the Fire Marshall for NPS, Randy Mason, and gave him the information on the fire alarms in the Assembly, Generator and warhead building.
He was aware that of those systems, and the warhead building was not even powered.
And explained that they currently cannot find a company who will take the contract to service the fire alarms at GGNP.

The phone that Gordon kindly donated is now operational in the Assembly Bldg office.
The # is 415-331-2476

It is for emergency use when Alec and I are here working by ourselves and no NPS rangers with radios can relay emergencies. Cell phones do not work at SF-88, and if Alec or I needed medical, police or fire response, we would have to leave the site and drive to the top of the ridge.

NPS emergency numbers and site directions are posted near the phone.

The Acq antenna is making loud noises again and we have turned it off.

Alec and I, with the help of Scott Burghhart of CPI, retrieved 4 large cabinets of valuable parts that were removed from the Generator building and placed at Battery Alexander many years ago by Ranger Al Blank and NPS personnel.
We have been working to place those cabinets so we can access those parts in B Pit.
Mice have left their calling cards in the cabinet drawers and destroyed many valuable Nike items like the red safety lanyards that are placed on the missile before firing.
We removed the items, scrapped and scrubbed the drawers with soap and water to remove years of mouse droppings.
     

Some parts had to be discarded.

Greg Brown

A Pit Pressure Switch Failure 2/4/23
It seemed one of the 68 year old pressure switches blew and sent hydraulic fluid through its connecting electrical conduit and into a junction box. On the bottom of the junction box 3 conduits dropped down to their connected Solenoid valves. They were full of hydraulic fluid.
We opened everything up and drained the fluid out of the devices.
Replaced the pressure switch.
But is still did not work.

We came back on Wednesday and Friday, still no luck.
Then this Wednesday when we got lucky.

There is a lot more to the story but it had a happy ending on Wednesday.
I know a lot more about that system now, than I did before.
They say you never learn a system until it breaks.

I did not bring my elevator book with all my notes, but had a schematic. Trying several things, I jumped power to the actuator on terminal 53 and the motor started running. LS 17 was the culprit. It is the highest one to the door and gets the most water during the rains. I later took it apart and lubricated it.

Alec Ranger Al and I had lunch in B pit. Rumor is they are working on making SF-88 an Historic site.

Gordon and Dave Kritzinger were there being interviewed for the movie that the park service is filming.

All we need is 24 volts at many many amps to start.
And some fuel.

The Sandia tour last Friday went well. It was at 9 in the morning. Traffic was awful and pulled in just as they were starting. It took an hour and a half in early morning commute traffic.

A problem with that plan is that the needed Nike Ajax launching rail has had all four support members cut off.
Duane Fey has taken that bull by the horns to weld the two support members back on the exposed side of the rail.
Of course, complexities get in the way. The other side of the launching rail is right next to another cut up rail :--((

So the next task is to rotate the launching rail to expose the remaining cut side.
The launching rails are too heavy to "man-handle" so a chain hoist was found to help with the rotation.

Red lines point to already replaced support members.

Turning, turning

Lowering for welding this side

Duane (camouflage pants), Greg Brown (yellow rain coat) and Alex Gyorfi (yellow vest) at work rotating the Ajax launching rail.
Note: the third picture above shows the side of the launcher rail where the support members were cut off.
                   
Duane welding the support members back on.

He is fine. We started on a project to fix the phone line to the warhead building, which involves erecting a pipe mast on and existing light standard. Alec moved the “full” Launcher port-a-potty next to the other port-a-potty’s to be emptied, using a fork lift. The CPI (concrete) group is working at B pit and uses that one a lot.

Last Saturday, I came out for the tours. I worked with Dick Huey at the launcher tour.
He does a fine job explaining the system.

That is all the news that is fit to print!

1) Saturday started off with a bang. Jerry noticed that the hinge pin had worked out of the forward right side hinge of the A pit elevator door. Duane Fey was there so we all worked on the repair.		2) We used a small car floor jack to push in the pin. Which worked good to a point.
3) The pin being out had caused the door side to shift and mis- aligned the hinge.		4) Duane had the idea to put a 4 X 4 on the elevator platform and raise the elevator with wood to “Push Up” the door ever so much so the pin would go in completely. This worked and we were able to re-seat the pin. Duane worked on metal fabrication of the Ajax launcher.
5) I worked on the display in the generator building, placing American Flag fabric underneath the display items, to give a more patriotic look.		6) A good time was had by all.

Greg Brown

Just wanted to bring up on yesterday’s fun and frolic. Jerry and I ground off the rust on the back launcher, 4 sections. Worked like mad to finish in time.

Had a group from CPI (concrete preservation institute) most were active duty military, on TDY, to train for a vocation to civilian life. They took over our B pit area with concrete forms with concrete curing in them. Then they asked for a tour of the missiles in A pit. One of their group was in a stinger missile unit and trained at Mc Gregor and Fort Bliss. He knew the term Annual Service Practice. The group was impressed. Back to the launcher rails, we were really pinched for time, but we did the best with what we had. The launchers need much more work than we can give.

Work at SF-88 - typically "big heavy stuff" in "awkward situations"

"big heavy stuff" That big green thing is one of the hydraulic cylinders in the launcher to erect the missile - The shiny cylinder is its piston, complete with rings.
"awkward situations" Here is Greg trying to remove some rusted-to-failure clips which used to hold on a lower corner of the LOPAR antenna. He has already purchased some stainless steel screws from a hardware store and knows where to find some less rusted clips.

If you are used to doing "household repairs" with hand tools in your your garage in a few hours -
the added scale here moves the few hours to multiple days :--((

Today we ran the Acquisition Antenna for over 2 hours, with no problems.

We are putting the last pieces of the antenna together. The missing fiberglass radome cover is in need of latching hardware. We took some parts from the spare antenna along the fence. We have to get some small 4-40 screws to put the new latches on to secure the shroud.

As you saw on the previous email, the bigger de-humidifier was installed today. I like it because it is on wheels and has a relative humidity indicator. When we plugged it in it was reading 58% At 3 PM It was reading 37%
    

"Thank you for the check for $341.43 for the (two) de humidifiers.
...

"Alec and I waited 15 months for NPS to get us a unit.
With numerous emails to ... and ... . (of the National Park Service)

"Thanks to the Nike Historical Society.

"Respectfully yours,

"Greg Brown"

I had a 30 sec video of the antenna spinning, that I chopped down to 3 seconds to lower the file size. Play the .mpg, 686 KBytes

Alec would like to replace the bottom tub with a better one in storage.

Alec was successful in getting a spare regulator board on Saturday, so the motor generator [ in the generator building ] is working.

I have the bad one [ regulator board ] here along with another spare that has a badly corroded chassis. I will try to clean it up.

Here is a collection of pictures, a few from April 2nd

Three Guys	Acquisition Antenna Motor	Acq underside	Acq Top Tub Board
Acq Top Tub Cover	Acq Rotation Contactors	Acq Motor Gearbox	Acq Ant Toasted Motor Windings
Acq Ant Alec	Duane Fey	Acquisition Antenna Gearbox

from Duane Fey to Greg Brown

Thanks for the great pictures. I’m glad somebody was taking them. 20 years ago when we were doing a lot of work, there were no digital cameras. We had to wait for developing to find that most were crap.

Kato 400 Hz motor generator - frequency converter

Received April 5, 2022 from Greg Brown "I scanned the 15 page manual, for the Kato regulator board. Just so I have my own copy. We have proved the problem is in the board. Not much circuitry, after a minute or 2 the voltage starts to wander. I would say either bad capacitor or cold solder joint on the board." KatoRegulatorBoardSchematic-01 detail view KatoRegulatorBoardSchematic-02 Kato Instruction Manual Page 1,

---

Kato - 60 cycle power input side

Kato - 400 cycle power output side

Kato Regulator Card

Received May 21 2022 from Greg Brown FYI, enclosed is a picture of the motor generator regulator. The circuit board is called a pre-amp. The chassis contains multiple transformers and 2 large current transformers (CT)

When I pulled up, Alec (Gyorfi), Jerry (Feicht) and Duane (Fey) were busy removing the bad gearbox from the Acquisition antenna.

Not a fun position! Acq Motor behind Duane's head.

Heavy heavy hangs over his head

(L>R) Alec, Duane, Jerry

Looks like a socket on extender.

Duane is very motivated to get things done. That energy is greatly appreciated, and progress was made.

The replacement gearbox was installed and the refurbished motor was tested.

So we are that much closer to seeing the antenna turn again, provided we get a regulator board from Battery Alexander to get the 400 cycle motor generator running again.

Still missing key to Battery Alexander. Talked with Al Blank about it on Saturday.

I did both vans (Battery & Radar Control Vans) for the public. Don (Echeverria) was unable to come because the busses were not running.

Enclosed are a few pictures of our Acquisition Antenna tear down job yesterday.

Note fork lift

Alec used a fork lift to remove the lower and middle tub.

Then we dropped the bottom pan from the upper tub to access the motor and gearbox.
We removed the motor.
It appears as if there are some broken teeth on one of the gears in the gearbox.
We have to test the motor as it was red hot on the day of the failure.

Enclosed are the pictures of the Acq antenna leg replacement. The date is wrong….I transposed the month and day

Alec told me there was a problem with the Grainger order that we placed back in October? We really need dehumidifiers, For the RC Van, Warhead Building, Assembly Building, and A Pit. The rust you see in the picture has occurred since the dehumidifier failed in the RC van, If we can’t get them through Grainger, could we try another vendor? Please advise, Respectfully yours, Greg Brown NPS SF-88 Volunteer

The first thing we did is repair a newly installed roll up door that a park service member broke. They tried to force the locked door open by brute force with the chain. The locking pins on the sides bent.

This door was cheaply made and broke easily. We had to cut off the bent locking pins so it would work again.

If it was one of the original doors, it would have been harder to break.

We had a successful day today, and the elevator in now working properly.
It can go down, before it would not.
Studied the manual and found the fix P26 - Sect IV. Enclosed is that page from the manual.
Check continuity between wire 51 and wire 64. (the 4 limit switches in series)

Alec and I lined up 9 broken units that have been in the junk pile for years. There were also broken units in A pit and the warhead building. Hopefully Al has ordered them?

The [Magazine A] elevator mysteriously started working.

So we did repairs on the diamond plates around the elevator doors that are rusted and leaking
Adding longer bolts with nuts underneath and sealing the sides with black silicone caulk to keep the rain water out.
You can see how rusted the access plates are.

Greg Brown

Greg Brown

Rusted access plate

Alec Gyorfi

Greg

That work is almost completed. Also under that same contract, removal of trash and surplus equipment from the B pit area.

Another company received contracts to replace the roofs on the Warhead and the Assembly Building.

Our Gratitude to NPS Management for Historical Restoration of SF-88

We started to work on the Acquisition Antenna. It was a miserable day, cold and wet fog.

Alec is making a gasket for the gearbox in the picture. We went out to the antenna and opened the side cover. Looking at the sight glass on the gearbox, the oil went dry. Everything is rusted so bad.

Then Alec noted that one of the outrigger supports was so rusted it had broken in half, Taking the antenna out of level. Now we have to find a replacement outrigger arm. Alec says there was one at Battery Wallace.

We need access to Battery Wallace to find the spare LOPAR antenna, if the antenna is to be repaired.

Ed Thelen here - Requests for access to "our" material in Battery Wallace have been made for several reasons over the past five years. The result is always "wait". I'm getting more paranoid - has the Nike material in Battery Wallace been removed, and no one wishes to admit it ???

Al Blank wants to be able to have 4 missiles on the launchers. Not going to happen until we grind off the rust and paint the launcher rails So he asked us if we would do just that. We agreed

That will be one big job. - Sounds like a major work party :--))

Kato Regulator

Kato Regulator Adjustment

I found in the manual that the voltage adjustment needs to be set with a voltmeter on terminals E1 & E3 Prior to that, it was being tweaked at random, out of the range of the regulator. By guess and by golly.
Next we will try to get the ACQ antenna working.
I am going next Thursday.

The Manuals that Amanda scanned are a treasure trove. I have gone through them. There is a ton of information. I have been trying to “lift” some of the graphics. For me it is a multi-step process

Acquisition Screen

For a list of some of the manuals Amanda scanned, click here.

1. The booster shorting plug. (Squib )
2. Barometric Probe?
3. Other mechanical part on the launcher ?
4. Maybe you or someone else knows

They have been painted by contractors to the National Park Service, and "tagged" by others.
Photos and text by Greg Brown.