HZ power steering pump leak sorted, copper washers should have worked, BUT...... (1 Viewer)

[Gengis]

OK, so dangling copper washers in the flame of your gas stove and then dunking them in water to anneal them, does not do a proper job. Just how hot do they have to be?
Anyway you can see that the job was not done properly, and I now have the correct aluminium one but still convinced the copper would have been better if done properly in the first place.
Got a spare aluminium one in case the leak was elsewhere, but I am 99.973523 % sure that it's sorted.
G.

 

[coldtaco]

we do that for aircraft spark plugs. got to make sure they get bright orange, just before melting. then dip in water to cool off. usually works good. we usually use a acetylene torch. then torque to spec. maybe if you don't tighten em enough it may not work?

 

[jblueridge]

I thought the water dunking made the metal harder, or is that just steel?
I use a propane torch without water dunk.

 

[coldtaco]

I think with the copper it "re-sets" the original shape of the copper? the dunking probably also "re-sets" the hardness? also the real hot cleans any oils and other impurity from the copper?

 

[jblueridge]

Found this, proving I am going stir crazy.

Annealing Copper Washers

Copper is very odd stuff, with regards to its crystal structure. It has a property called 'work hardening', which means that when it is subjected to...

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