Huge IBM 1800 find (and need some help)

[Paul Koning]

> On Mar 21, 2015, at 11:23 PM, Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote:
> 
> On 03/21/2015 05:15 PM, Jim Stephens wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> On 3/21/2015 12:50 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
>>> OK, a quick search shows the 2311 was indeed hydraulic! 
>> The University of Missouri, Rolla 9 drive 2314 was hydraulic, and on night a drive's actuator unloaded into the pack area, and took it out, but the damage from that major failure was contained w/o the pack or actuators exiting the enclosure.  however the debris took out all the packs and drives.
>> 
> This one wasn't when I was there.  I think we also had a oil spraying event there, but it was relatively contained.  We had one at Washington University, also that might have contaminated several spindles before they got all the packs unloaded.
> I think this one is fairly quickly detected if the computer room is occupied, it causes a strong oily smell that is quickly spread by the A/C system.

We had a 1620/II in college with a pair of 1311s, which are similar to the 2311.  The system drive sprung a leak.  The field service tech replaced the failed seals, and I obtained some reagent grade isopropyl alcohol from the chemistry department.  He used that with Kimwipes to clean the oil from pack and heads.  The result was complete success.  Packs and heads in those days had tolerances far larger; I wouldn’t want to try that with anything much newer.  But if you have a 2311 with contaminated heads or packs, you might give that technique a try.

	paul