a while back I bought an older campbell husfield wheelbarrow gas air compressor from a friend for cheap... he never had it running but the price was good enough to be worth the risk...
it has a honda gx160 5.5hp engine which needed a carb clean and new or cleaned fuel tank... I removed the belt between the compressor and motor just to make things easier to test... the engine runs like a peach now... but when I got the belt back onto the compressor when I get the engine started it just started screaming... it seems the compressor itself is much harder to turn than I expected...
so this goes into the question... how hard should it be to turn the compressor by hand? where should I start for checking over the compressor itself? if it needs a rebuild it looks like I can buy a rebuild kit for about $70 but I wonder if I'd be better off buying a new pump depending on the issue...
An air compressor doesn't compress air, it moves air into a storage tank. As more air is pushed into the tank the pressure rises.
Your compressor shouldn't be hard to spin. If it is then something may be wrong with it.
With no load the compressor should spin with a couple inch/pounds of torque. Just more than a hamster wheel. Take it apart before you order rebuild parts, it may be too far gone.
I finally got around to pulling the air pump apart and found out why/what was the issue... it seems there was some rust in one of the cylinders...
it's about $45 to replace the gaskets... so now I've got to decide if I want to wait for a sale for the harbor freight pump or hone out the cyl walls... or maybe just try some try my luck with some gasket maker...
Heck, you're this far into it.... Why not just clean it up and put it back together and see what you've got?
I suspect gasket maker would be fine.
Well, at least its nice that you found an obvious problem.
That may not clean up very nicely, but there isn't really a down side to trying.
I grab a ball hone and see how much of that rust you can clean up, being careful not to take off too much. If you don't have a ball hone, you might be able to do it on the cheap with some sandpaper attached to a coathanger wire and stuck in a drill. Lightly sand off the rust from the piston top and the rings. I'd try making a gasket out gasket material instead of instead of a liquid gasket seal and see if you can get it to build pressure. I assume it's not an oil-less pump, so make sure to use compressor oil and not motor oil.
-Rob
rob_lewis said:
I assume it's not an oil-less pump, so make sure to use compressor oil and not motor oil.
I had no idea. I know my compressor has always had motor oil in it, per the manufacturers instructions, IIRC. I will have to review those instructions, I suppose. I do know that it's synthetic, and that it's probably due for a change.
Since my BS detector was going off, I decided to investigate. It appears there is something to the notion of compressor oil. I wonder how many people are aware of this?
https://www.dozyfrog.com/air-tools/can-i-use-motor-oil-in-compressor
1988RedT2 said:
rob_lewis said:
I assume it's not an oil-less pump, so make sure to use compressor oil and not motor oil.
I had no idea. I know my compressor has always had motor oil in it, per the manufacturers instructions, IIRC. I will have to review those instructions, I suppose. I do know that it's synthetic, and that it's probably due for a change.
Since my BS detector was going off, I decided to investigate. It appears there is something to the notion of compressor oil. I wonder how many people are aware of this?
https://www.dozyfrog.com/air-tools/can-i-use-motor-oil-in-compressor
Yeah, I had learned it here that you need to use compressor oil because the detergents in motor oil will cause it to foam up.
-Rob
1988RedT2 said:
Heck, you're this far into it.... Why not just clean it up and put it back together and see what you've got?
I suspect gasket maker would be fine.
that was more or less my thoughts lol.
ripped it apart as shown above...
finally got around to trying to fix it... I picked up a cylinder hone... between that and some sand paper I was able to get the rusty cyl fairly decent... not as good as the other cyl... but when I put the compressor pump back together I was able to rotate it easily enough that the engine shouldn't have an issue and it still put out a nice puff as I'd turn it.
mounted it to the compressor, now I need to pick up some compressor oil, until then I won't put the belt on "just in case"... with ADHD and my memory there is a good chance I'll forget that needs done and run it and ruin the pump... haha...
hopefully I'll have a chance to grab some this weekend... once it's going I'll have to pick up some air compressor hose and tools...
please with how it's gone so far... if it goes there is always the harbor freight pump, it was on sale for right at $100 last week... nothing I need to rush but it'll be nice to know it's there.
Put oil on and some fuel... started right up... took almost. I time for the engine to cut rpm because it had hit pressure but off at 140psi... verified by pulling the release valve and the engine picked up power...
I need to get some hose and tools now I suppose haha.
oh and out the safety cage in so no one gets caught I. Spinning wheels/belts of death...
