DaveH6
Air compressor problems
Ever wondered what's inside an air compressor cylinder head? I didn't until my less than three year old, two piston Cambell Hausfeld 60 gallon 3.2. Hp stationary air compressor took too long to build pressure and was making a strange sound broadcasting from its air intake filter. I'm getting close to spraying primer on the Bluejacket topsides thus not good timing for the compressor to fail.
Pictured is the compressor's valve plate which has reed valves to control air intake and outflow. A reed had snapped off of a cylinder's outlet port causing the problem. This failed reed covered (from the backside of the plate as pictured) ) the lower left oval shaped port. A $44 replacement valve plate with gaskets is now on order and will require about 30 minutes of my time to install.
I wish I could quickly find the definitive answer why my Boston Whaler's Mercury outboard has ignition spark problems and why my Saturn auto is leaking voltage and killing the battery if the car has been at rest for three days or more. With a golf cart battery recently exploding (shredded the battery top) about two feet from my face as I examined it, I have been having a run of bad luck with stuff breaking or attacking me. This explosion taught me that a lead acid battery gives off hydrogen gas when discharging. I thought it only happened when charging.
Edit 04/14/2014 : My bad luck continues as the fan in one of our outside central a/c cabinets stopped turning thus the upstairs portion of our home was un-air conditioned. An advantage of multiple outside A/C cabinets is having the means to obtain comparative numbers when running electrical tests as well as swapping parts. The suspect fan motor's run and start windings passed my resistance tests, and the start capacitor tested good via my capacitance tester. Perhaps the fan motor failed because the thermal overload protector went bad. I swapped this failed motor out for the fan motor in the A/C cabinet for my workshop. Upstairs A/C restored and off I go to the Internet for a replacement motor.
I await the next equipment failure...
Edit. 08/20/2014: The fan in the AC compressor for the upstairs again stopped turning. Not on the scene in Texas, I called in a HVAC technician. The start capacitor had failed. The technician reported that when a fan motor fails as mine did in April, it is very common for the start capacitor to soon fail.
Edit 09/15/2018: Another start capacitor failed. With power applied to the unit, the compressor was running and the non-turning fan was humming. My son arranged for a service technician who took a long handled screw driver and spun the fan blade. The fan immediately took off running normally. The technician said the start capacitor was bad. My A/C cabinets get much afternoon sun thus I speculate that the start capacitors may have their life shortened by heat.
Air compressor problems
Ever wondered what's inside an air compressor cylinder head? I didn't until my less than three year old, two piston Cambell Hausfeld 60 gallon 3.2. Hp stationary air compressor took too long to build pressure and was making a strange sound broadcasting from its air intake filter. I'm getting close to spraying primer on the Bluejacket topsides thus not good timing for the compressor to fail.
Pictured is the compressor's valve plate which has reed valves to control air intake and outflow. A reed had snapped off of a cylinder's outlet port causing the problem. This failed reed covered (from the backside of the plate as pictured) ) the lower left oval shaped port. A $44 replacement valve plate with gaskets is now on order and will require about 30 minutes of my time to install.
I wish I could quickly find the definitive answer why my Boston Whaler's Mercury outboard has ignition spark problems and why my Saturn auto is leaking voltage and killing the battery if the car has been at rest for three days or more. With a golf cart battery recently exploding (shredded the battery top) about two feet from my face as I examined it, I have been having a run of bad luck with stuff breaking or attacking me. This explosion taught me that a lead acid battery gives off hydrogen gas when discharging. I thought it only happened when charging.
Edit 04/14/2014 : My bad luck continues as the fan in one of our outside central a/c cabinets stopped turning thus the upstairs portion of our home was un-air conditioned. An advantage of multiple outside A/C cabinets is having the means to obtain comparative numbers when running electrical tests as well as swapping parts. The suspect fan motor's run and start windings passed my resistance tests, and the start capacitor tested good via my capacitance tester. Perhaps the fan motor failed because the thermal overload protector went bad. I swapped this failed motor out for the fan motor in the A/C cabinet for my workshop. Upstairs A/C restored and off I go to the Internet for a replacement motor.
I await the next equipment failure...
Edit. 08/20/2014: The fan in the AC compressor for the upstairs again stopped turning. Not on the scene in Texas, I called in a HVAC technician. The start capacitor had failed. The technician reported that when a fan motor fails as mine did in April, it is very common for the start capacitor to soon fail.
Edit 09/15/2018: Another start capacitor failed. With power applied to the unit, the compressor was running and the non-turning fan was humming. My son arranged for a service technician who took a long handled screw driver and spun the fan blade. The fan immediately took off running normally. The technician said the start capacitor was bad. My A/C cabinets get much afternoon sun thus I speculate that the start capacitors may have their life shortened by heat.