Maintenance on an oil well that was drilled in 1921. In this video I grease, oil, change belts, and repack the stuffing box. Thanks for watching. Gearbox video • Repair on 100 year old...
My dad pumped wells here in Ohio. In the summer, when I was a kid, I'd ride around with him to all his wells. He always carried around a big cresent wrench and a grease gun under the seat of the truck. He had one ancient well with an old pump jack with a gas hit and miss engine on it. I remember him greasing the polish rod and stuffing box up, checking the oil in the engine, setting the gas or throttle and cranking the flywheel. When the engine was running good he would release a break that then would engage the horses head. He'd let me go up on the tank to check the oil level which was fun for a kid.😊😊
My dad pumped several wells for two or three different companies and I went with him during summers. We were always changing packing, (Split donuts} or tightening them up. Changing belts, greasing bearings and oil the polish rods. Most of his wells were electric by the time I was around. A few were still the old Fairbanks Morse engines. What you call the hit miss engines. Some times the build up at the bottom of the well would cause the pump to hit and get slack in the cable on the saddle and we would have to adjust that. Every time I smell crude oil I think of him. Our polish rods were always brass, never saw a steel one. I've watched them pull wells and replace pumps and sucker rods and I've been with them when they lowered nitro down a well and touched it off to fracture the formation and I've seen Halliburton do it with there equipment. Those big ole trucks would start jumping and shaking. 24/7 job. Boy the memories.
@@TheZachLife Could you do a video and go into more detail about the gear reductions and pulley sizes and the resulting forces, torques, etc? You understand it thoroughly, but a little more explanation would help those of us who aren't as familiar.
I hauled crude oil, salt water, fresh water, diesel, methanol etc in the oilfields. I miss every second of it..god bless our oilfield workers. Keep it turning to the right
People with useful skills and a great work ethic make the world go round. My only criticism is that Zach can't be cloned, because we could use more people like him.
Hey Zach, brings back old memories, in 1965 I worked on an oil well work over rig while attending Texas A&I college South Texas. It really gits me to hear all these tree huggers rasin hell about fracking, This fracking procedure in older than me at 81 years. Thanks for the videos, your a good man.
Great to see it working, we used to have a few working in Eakring. Nottinghamshire, U.K. There is a Bronze monument still in place as a tribute to the Americans Oilfield Hands that came over in World War 2 to assist in drilling the local wells
I've actually seen one working in Normanton, Nottinghamshire in 2010. I filmed it and used it as the tail end clip of a train video in2010- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Xp1XDrfOOus.html . There were a few abandoned wells in the area, so I do not know if that one is still working.
Those areas of Nottinghamshire (and elsewhere) would be ideal for fracking, but our wonderful government set the ground vibrations so low that a semi truck (we call them articulated) driving by would set them off. All designed to prevent any fracking in UK.
The Allies floated to victory on a sea of oil. Our leaders today forget this important fact. My Dad flew in B17's and a lot of times their targets were oil fields, refineries and marshalling yards shipping oil and oil products. I just can't imagine electric powered tanks and fighters.
@@meadows408 I'm a big proponent of electric but in the right areas such as light vehicles. There is an entire industry that needs to catch up to be truly "green" but heavy vehicles and aircraft will not run on electric for some time if ever.
The interesting thing about folks that watch youtube videos and then comment negatively about the work you preform is they have never done the work you do, or have done the work but not in the environment that you work in or have never done the same work on the ancient old equipment that you work on. I used to work in the rail industry in the same area you are in and the companies that I worked for wanted three things, it to work right now, it to last forever when finished and it to cost nothing at all....... pick one because you don't get all three. What you do is amazing, how you do it is your way and that is pretty amazing too seeing that you are out in the middle of BFE, with limited tools, supplies and equipment and ALONE. Thanks for the ride along and making me miss working on old shit no one knows how to repair anymore.
Very interesting! I was born and raised in the oil field. West Texas and eastern New Mexico. I've managed to work in most every capacity from staking out where the wells were going to be drilled to drilling them to completing them to being a company man for several oil companies. I even welded both in the field and in rig building yards.
I'm not surprised at all! All this old stuff lasts forever! Something got injected into America and it was really bad. It's a 4 letter word. Starts with J and ends with s. There is a w in the word too. We have all been terribly indocturnated our whole lives in lousy school systems to the point that almost everyone spends way more time in school than people ever did, but we are all way less educated than those people. Most people have a very poor command of the English language and know none of the stories of the glory and noble characters that are our ancestry. I was friends with these ghetto people in Syracuse, NY. They lived in the ruins of a great civilization with beautiful buildings and architecture falling down around their ears. I would wonder who were these people and where did they go? If you look at a history of Rochester, NY it is unbelievable what a prosperous, thriving city it was from basically about 1800! We had the first 2 story mall in 1827 and Western Union was founded at the site. Now the city is dead and filled with crime. The last thing any of these bad people I mentioned earlier want is you to know anything about history. They had no hand in the creation of this country, and they killed Jesus.
It makes me happy to see you taking care of good old reliable equipment. I'm 54 and remember being a kid in southern California. We called those pumps Ya Ya's because they looked like big Grasshopper's nodding yes . Apparently some of the Oil worker's thought so too. They painted bug eyes on the head weight and welded curved rebar on for antennas. They have they own special sound . The newer pumps just aren't the same. I always found it relaxing.
Have watched 100's of these horseys pump on the hills of southern california, thanks for the rundown, amazing how we will run out of oil but thousands of 100 year old wells just keep pumping LOL
Bob, we never will run out of oil. As the pacific tectonic plate slides under the western shores of North America it takes with it millions of years of organic sediment in stratum that cooks due to pressure & heat. Are you aware of this?
@@diogenes5381 exactly , and theres more, many experts believe the earth makes crude oil continually by various cooking processes , it wants people to think its Only from fossils as they " thought" , this was just a marketing/ production scam to cover up the truth .
It's such a vast expanse. I remember flying across Texas, seeing the thousands of oil wells down below. I nodded off for an hour, looked back down, and there were still countless wells.
That's a damn good instructive video. I'm just a chemical engineer, and been to hundreds of wells. Always wondered how they're maintained. Thanks a bunch.
Thank you. (I am in the UK) I have never seen an oil well pump this close before, and often wondered how they work. (Seen them in the background in movies) Thanks for a very informative video. 😀
Really cool that you get to work on oil pump jack wells I’ve always been fascinated by those machines especially the ones that use the old wheel and cable drive system and even the individual units that are powered by a hit and miss engine or a Fairbanks Morse engine
@@TheZachLife There was a time not too long ago there was once in oil well out in Oklahoma that utilize the old Rod driven oil well technique it was powered by a Fairbanks Morse engine with a crankshaft which turn the wheel with all the rods going in all directions but as of the 2000 teens the well was removed by a high tech energy company and the oil pump jacks were donated to a museum somewhere in Texas ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uzkVVwsic9g.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I_L6jqizKnE.html
Different strokes for different folks . . under the crown still here in Australia we have rights only two meters underground to an extent of leasehold laws called joking freehold etc . . further than that the Queen or more precise the 'London banks' precinct vampire bankers owns that underground not the mafia colony Australia . . more you know etc
I used to work an old exxon lease here in south texas where the wells were drilled in the 40s. Do all the same kinda techniques you do except i never thought to turn the tubing to help it from getting holes, thats pretty smart!
Just found your channel and learned something never been around oil well things like this. Thanks! love how you handle your keyboard experts and their "suggestions" 🤣
Oil production up north is completely different from south down here in Texas especially north Texas it’s not a rare thing to see a 90-100 year old well it’s pretty cool to think that a well like that will go through plenty of pumpin units before it’s dry or as some people like to call them “pump jacks”
Thanks Zach, I just came across your very interesting video. I see these babies in the field pumping away and was always tempted to have a closer look, but you bring it on home with great info. Thanks.
Growing up in Oil City Pa old wells were common thing. Heck I park by the oldest continuously producing well in the world to go fishing and swimming Rouseville Pa. Neat stuff used to play in the powerhouses never understood how much history was around me.
Love this... used to stay summers with cousins in Monahans, uncle was a driller... YT is the only way I get to see what's up with the oil patch! Watch those fingers!
Cool. Ive never been employed on a drilling rig but i've spent a some time around them. I plan on doing more of the oilfield videos as I finish up my RV.
Reminds me of my oil field days-operating a snubbing unit for OTIS engineering out of Houma -La-felt like I was Popeye when making up tools with 36 and 48 inch pipe wrenches-still had all my fingers which was an anomaly at the time-got plenty of friends now who are pumpers - good money but hot dirty work here in Louisiana-takes a special kind of person but when taking care of wells you feel like they are your working family very satisfying
Great job. I used to be a service tech myself, mostly on gas wells. Lots of lonely driving in Texas. I usually would have music playing while I worked. Hard work sometimes and dangerous. Long days and nights. Stay safe.
@@josephmelton4721 Made the companies I worked for a lot of money. Wasn’t getting rich myself. If you decide to get in it work for yourself. You will need insurance and it’s expensive. One lawsuit and you’re ruined. If you work for a service company by the hour you want to ask for a percentage of what you bill the customers. If you just work by the hour you will end up old and broken. Believe me.
Get yourself a chain vice grip to hold the top of the stuffing box. Changed hundreds upon hundreds of packing sets out and they work great. Back in the day they used to run tubing rotators just for the reason you mentioned, someone should have a few kicking around.
I find that a 101-year-old well is still producing oil the most interesting. I use to fly helicopters in the GOM. One of the Platforms I would service was also one of the first offshore oil production platforms, It still produces crude oil and enough of it to make it worthwhile and to fly out to it with persons to keep it producing and in good repair. I find that people who know how to do this stuff are very worth paying attention to. There is a hell of a lot of work that goes into that gallon of gas I pump into my car.
There are 4 jacks on my family's property that we own the rights to, there was 5 but one was plugged a few years ago, I like to drive my old Farmall H around and watch them run.
I know too all you guys who work on these jacks it’s just another day but too me just a chap from the uk 🇬🇧 it’s very interesting thank you mr and stay safe 👏👏👍😊
We rebuild stuffing boxes for some companies or change out bases if they need a different size. When we put them back together we always go nuts and lock washers on top and feed the bolts up from the bottom. I started writing this before I seen your whole stuffing box. They are typically a double pack or a double pack with a pollution control base which contains a flapper incase of PR part. Lots of 5k and 3k stuffing boxes here as well.
Wow, another neat video, Zach, very impressive! Really enjoyed your detailed explanations, you do such a great job of this. I especially like the camera angles, their awesome. I found the turning the tubing very interesting, makes a lot of sense. You're a very well equipped pumper to handle any oil field job. Any oil lease company would be very fortunate to have you in their employ. Any chance you might demonstrate the maintenance and possible tear down or rebuild of a Fairbanks Morse ZC, Witte, Ajax, or Arrow ZC engine? These are my favorite oil field engines, especially the ZC 118, 208, 346, and 508s. We have a lot of 208s running here in the Illinois oil basin. Its always neat to see other oil field area prime movers. Keep these videos coming, always look forward to your next one. Duane in Evansville, IN
Thanks. I have zero experience with with the gas engine powered wells, however I've got a recently purchased oil well that i'm planning to temporarily put a 118 or a 208 on because it doesn't have power to it. I have just picked up 2 208's and a 118 and will have to make at least one run. That project will be coming up probably in the spring/early summer. I originally planned on the antique gas engines being a big part of this channel but the majority of my time has been taken up by the RV. I've made a deal on a 35 hp superior i need to go pickup.
@@TheZachLife Wow, a 35 hp Superior!!...can't wait to see a video of it, any chance of taking us along when you pick it up? What a joy to see!! and your 118 and 208s also...I feel like a kid at Christmas waiting for the next video. Thanks for your reply.
As an industrial mechanic who loves my job, this is amazing. Thank you so much Zach! And hey, as an educated environmentalist who knows the science: As long as there’s a need for oil, it is ALWAYS environmentally better to use old machinery! It costs a lot of carbon to build these things! A highly skilled mechanic like Zach in the oil field is a godsend to our current climate problems, even if it doesn’t fix everything. He’s running worlds cleaner and more efficient than most “modern” producers!
Electric impact??? No way… your usually bearskin rugs and stone knives…” old school”. Nothing wrong with that. Love the channel, have been driving past many well for over 40 yrs and always wondered how they work. Keep the vids coming!!!😎
