Todays Project - What did you do today?

[f350ca]

The other day I got a call from a chap wondering if I could look at his hydro plant. It needed the bearings changed on the turbine. OK, this sounds interesting.
He bought a farm a year or so ago complete with a 60 Kilowatt hydro plant. He can operate it about 9 months of the year, over the summer the flow in the creek is too low. Has about 12 foot of fall with a 36 inch pipe feeding the turbine. When running he sells power to the grid.
Even shut down theres enough leakage to spin the turbine. It was clunking away, but didn't sound like bearing problems. Put a screw driver as a stethoscope against the bearings and they sound fine. It has wickets that adjust the flow into the turbine, this controls the speed to stay at 60 hertz. I climb down into the cellar around the turbine and the little ball joints one of the arms that control the wickets is broken. Pull the arm on the wicket up and we have silence, and he has a grin on his face.
He's going to close the gate above the penstock and dewater the system. We'll replace all the ball joints and give it a going over.
Sorry no photo's my camera battery was dead and my phone camera has died. Will get some pictures when I go back to work on it.