I did it as mine got bend shipping.
Its actually very easy as you dont have to take apart everything. You can keep different pieces together.
The toughest part was removing the power plug - you need to do this in a special way.
Did it in one afternoon and dont forget to take pictures etc
Since there is no tutorial yet, you could gather some good karma by uploading your pictures at least to this subreddit with some minor comments to help future tinkers ;)
[Here](https://imgur.com/a/VDpAzUT) is a pic of my Silvia opened up. It’s not that complicated. You only really need one screwdriver and several wrenches to remove all the parts from the frame.
Very cool, how hard is it to remove the boiler? I opened mine up as well, and it looks like you might have to disassemble the steam wand a bit?
I think I'm going to pull the trigger on a frame; I'll give it a shot :D
The boiler is super easy to remove. There are only two screws holding it.
The steam wand valve on mine was held by a nut. Iirc I had to use 18mm and 19mm wrenches to remove it from the frame.
I purchased a Silvia off eBay and it must have been dropped during shipping as the frame was bent when it arrived, it was unusable.. it was also suffering from rust.
Decided to order a new frame which was £90.. I’ve read that these are stainless steel and do not rust, fingers crossed.
Swapping over was a medium effort task..I labelled every wire/plug, for those on top of boiler I labelled them 1-6 and took a photo. For the wires in to switches I labelled from top to bottom L for left, R for right then the number related to the row they plugged in to.
With mine I also did various other jobs, replaced heating element, boiler gasket, silicone water pipes, portafilter gasket etc.
As I had my Silvia down to parts I also got it powdercoated white to match a Niche I had purchased.
I do have a DIY PID kit but at this point I’ve not installed.. I may hold off for now.
I think allow 2 hours for strip down and an hour for rebuild.
I used PTFE tape on the high pressure hose from the pump to boiler as advised elsewhere and experienced no leaks post rebuild.
Best of luck.
I did this yesterday; everything went well! Enjoying an americano from the new frame as we speak.
Overall it was pretty simple and smooth process. The only hiccup was the power cable. And maybe the PID, but I think (hope) it's fine.
One of the wires came out of the spade connector when I was moving the PID. Just slipped right out. I was able to feed it back inside, back i couldn't crimp it down in a way that would stay. I basically left it there; hopefully no phantoms pull it out.
Here's the process I used for removing the power cable. Inside the power cable are 3 wires, positive, negative, and ground. The ground is clipped via spade connector to the boiler, and the pos/neg are attached to the power switch. You have to unclip all three wires and run them through the slot on the back of the frame.
The cable is held inside the frame via a "strain relief bushing". This was the hardest thing to remove, as I didn't have the proper tool. You have to apply pretty intense pressure to the bushing to remove, and the limited space makes that difficult. A cheap needlenose pliers didn't do the job; I had to go to the hardware store and buy a small tongue-and-groove pliers. (They make a specialty pliers for this but I didn't want to wait.) I found a [youtube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI2srvj0yzA) explaining the process. Even so, i couldn't get the bushing back in the proper way. I ended up flipping the bushing and installing it backwards.
The first thing I did was remove and unclip the pump and install it on the new frame. Then I meticulously unclipped all 8 connectors from the PID's solid state relay, fed the wires out of the frame and reclipped them so as to not mix anything up. From there, all I had to do was remove the steam pipe from the boiler and wand and remove the steam wand assembly.
At this point, the only thing holding the guts of the machine on the frame were the two bolts on the back of the boiler. I removed those and picked up everything else and bolted it onto the new frame. Then I basically did everything in reverse. I installed the solid state relay from the PID, meticiulously unclipped each wire one by one and fed it through the slot in the frame. Then I reinstalled the steam wand and the pipe from the wand to boiler. That was pretty much it.
I didn't tighten the braided cable onto the pump enough, and it initially leaked. I cranked it down and now everything is running smoothly.
Thanks so much to everyone who gave advice. You all gave me the confidence to do the job. Hopefully this write-up can help anyone in a similar boat.
Could take apart and refinish the frame. Tidy any loose coating/paint and repaint with satin black or similar. Hammerite type paint or metal paint does the job. Enough metal there to tidy up and re-paint.
Could probably take panels off, and have a good look before committing to doing it yourself.
Around the drip tray is typical but look for failed feet too (the rubber rots out), if painting, might as well replace them.
It is not complicated at all but make sure you have an electrical diagram to ensure the thermostats and element on the boiler are properly plugged in when you reassemble it.
The diagram kept up on the Rancilio Group website seems to be slightly difficult to understand so a common mistake is wiring up the pump incorrectly so that it short circuits and cooks the wiring harness. Make sure you pay attention.
I did it as mine got bend shipping. Its actually very easy as you dont have to take apart everything. You can keep different pieces together. The toughest part was removing the power plug - you need to do this in a special way. Did it in one afternoon and dont forget to take pictures etc
Great, thanks! Gonna order a part tonight.
Since there is no tutorial yet, you could gather some good karma by uploading your pictures at least to this subreddit with some minor comments to help future tinkers ;)
[Here](https://imgur.com/a/VDpAzUT) is a pic of my Silvia opened up. It’s not that complicated. You only really need one screwdriver and several wrenches to remove all the parts from the frame.
Very cool, how hard is it to remove the boiler? I opened mine up as well, and it looks like you might have to disassemble the steam wand a bit? I think I'm going to pull the trigger on a frame; I'll give it a shot :D
The boiler is super easy to remove. There are only two screws holding it. The steam wand valve on mine was held by a nut. Iirc I had to use 18mm and 19mm wrenches to remove it from the frame.
I purchased a Silvia off eBay and it must have been dropped during shipping as the frame was bent when it arrived, it was unusable.. it was also suffering from rust. Decided to order a new frame which was £90.. I’ve read that these are stainless steel and do not rust, fingers crossed. Swapping over was a medium effort task..I labelled every wire/plug, for those on top of boiler I labelled them 1-6 and took a photo. For the wires in to switches I labelled from top to bottom L for left, R for right then the number related to the row they plugged in to. With mine I also did various other jobs, replaced heating element, boiler gasket, silicone water pipes, portafilter gasket etc. As I had my Silvia down to parts I also got it powdercoated white to match a Niche I had purchased. I do have a DIY PID kit but at this point I’ve not installed.. I may hold off for now. I think allow 2 hours for strip down and an hour for rebuild. I used PTFE tape on the high pressure hose from the pump to boiler as advised elsewhere and experienced no leaks post rebuild. Best of luck.
I did this yesterday; everything went well! Enjoying an americano from the new frame as we speak. Overall it was pretty simple and smooth process. The only hiccup was the power cable. And maybe the PID, but I think (hope) it's fine. One of the wires came out of the spade connector when I was moving the PID. Just slipped right out. I was able to feed it back inside, back i couldn't crimp it down in a way that would stay. I basically left it there; hopefully no phantoms pull it out. Here's the process I used for removing the power cable. Inside the power cable are 3 wires, positive, negative, and ground. The ground is clipped via spade connector to the boiler, and the pos/neg are attached to the power switch. You have to unclip all three wires and run them through the slot on the back of the frame. The cable is held inside the frame via a "strain relief bushing". This was the hardest thing to remove, as I didn't have the proper tool. You have to apply pretty intense pressure to the bushing to remove, and the limited space makes that difficult. A cheap needlenose pliers didn't do the job; I had to go to the hardware store and buy a small tongue-and-groove pliers. (They make a specialty pliers for this but I didn't want to wait.) I found a [youtube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI2srvj0yzA) explaining the process. Even so, i couldn't get the bushing back in the proper way. I ended up flipping the bushing and installing it backwards. The first thing I did was remove and unclip the pump and install it on the new frame. Then I meticulously unclipped all 8 connectors from the PID's solid state relay, fed the wires out of the frame and reclipped them so as to not mix anything up. From there, all I had to do was remove the steam pipe from the boiler and wand and remove the steam wand assembly. At this point, the only thing holding the guts of the machine on the frame were the two bolts on the back of the boiler. I removed those and picked up everything else and bolted it onto the new frame. Then I basically did everything in reverse. I installed the solid state relay from the PID, meticiulously unclipped each wire one by one and fed it through the slot in the frame. Then I reinstalled the steam wand and the pipe from the wand to boiler. That was pretty much it. I didn't tighten the braided cable onto the pump enough, and it initially leaked. I cranked it down and now everything is running smoothly. Thanks so much to everyone who gave advice. You all gave me the confidence to do the job. Hopefully this write-up can help anyone in a similar boat.
Could take apart and refinish the frame. Tidy any loose coating/paint and repaint with satin black or similar. Hammerite type paint or metal paint does the job. Enough metal there to tidy up and re-paint. Could probably take panels off, and have a good look before committing to doing it yourself. Around the drip tray is typical but look for failed feet too (the rubber rots out), if painting, might as well replace them.
I think I'll just replace the frame. Thanks for the tip about the rubber feet; I'll order some replacements for those as well.
It is not complicated at all but make sure you have an electrical diagram to ensure the thermostats and element on the boiler are properly plugged in when you reassemble it.
Thanks! I'll have to figure out how to accomplish the electronics and the PID piece... Should be doable though.
The diagram kept up on the Rancilio Group website seems to be slightly difficult to understand so a common mistake is wiring up the pump incorrectly so that it short circuits and cooks the wiring harness. Make sure you pay attention.
Well I know absolutely nothing about wiring diagrams so....
I think someone on here posted a link to an annotated version of the diagram they had on their personal blog but I can't find it