Tech tip of the day

[Floridianson]

I'm going to get you guy to hate me one way or the other.
Tech tip. When draining your air tanks bleed all the air out of the inboard tank (on my rig) lets call it the main first. Let all the air out. Now we can see if the check valve is holding between the tanks. Secondary tank should have good pressure. If not check valve is not holding. Mine was bad had crap in it an was not sealing. I got my valve from NAPA but went with 3/8 thread cause I broke the block that went in to the tank and 3/8 block is what they had.

 

[ojsdna744]

I like the tech tips! Reminds me of the things I learned as I first started crawling over my "new-to-me" deuce!!

 

[houdel]

Good one. I would never have thought of draining the tanks that way to test the check valve. Come to think of it, I didn't even KNOW there is an inter tank check valve!

 

[SierraHotel]

Okay, this brings up a question of mine…or two.
1st – The pressure in my inboard (driveshaft side) tank is great, but the outboard tank has half or less of the pressure. Is this a problem & what might it be?
2nd – I open the drain cocks on my tanks for about 5 seconds to flush any accumulated water. Should I fully drain them or is that sufficient?
3rd – Harbor Freight sells an auto drain system that opens the drain cock momentarily anytime the pressure changes. Would this be a good idea or a silly gizmo that is not a good idea?

 

[ojsdna744]

2nd – I open the drain cocks on my tanks for about 5 seconds to flush any accumulated water. Should I fully drain them or is that sufficient?
3rd – Harbor Freight sells an auto drain system that opens the drain cock momentarily anytime the pressure changes. Would this be a good idea or a silly gizmo that is not a good idea?

2- 5 to 8 seconds or so is usually sufficient. Once it stops spraying water, I stop draining.

3- I think the auto-drain would be kinda silly and I probably wouldn't want that installed with me depending on that system for my braking. I have the cable-type drains on mine so I can drain them by reaching in near the spare.

 

[ida34]

Okay, this brings up a question of mine…or two.
1st – The pressure in my inboard (driveshaft side) tank is great, but the outboard tank has half or less of the pressure. Is this a problem & what might it be?
2nd – I open the drain cocks on my tanks for about 5 seconds to flush any accumulated water. Should I fully drain them or is that sufficient?
3rd – Harbor Freight sells an auto drain system that opens the drain cock momentarily anytime the pressure changes. Would this be a good idea or a silly gizmo that is not a good idea?

I have the gizmo on my air compressor in my garage. It only lets loose when the tank pressure drops. It does not work as well as you might think. When you shut the compressor down and the pressure naturally drops the valve opens and it drains. You don't get the high pressure drain like opening the valve with the tanks pressurized. When I start the compressor you can hear the valve is still open. The pressure still builds faster than the tank can bleed off. When the pressure gets high enough the line from the regulator to the valve forces the valve closed. It would take alot of plumbing to get the drain to work on the deuce tank. It needs a line that goes to the on off regularer switch on a regular compressor so I would guess you would need to plumb the line into the tank at another location. You might be able to run a T then attach it to the bottom but I would hate to see how far down it would hang.

 

[Floridianson]

SierraHotel. Haymarket Va. was a cool place to go when I was growing up. There was a road that ran next to 66 had a creek and an old mill. Loved to take the girl friend and get wet. I lived in West Springfield.
The pressure thing. What is your gage showing in the cab. The outboard tank supplies everything ?

 

[Jones]

None of the deuces or five tons have them-- but I always thought an air dryer would be a good add-on to have. I put a Bendix AD-9 on the baby HEMTT and it fits right in. Plumbed in between the compressor and the "wet" (first air) tank; it has a spin-on filter cartridge and a purge cycle that drains condensation and back-blows the filter cartridge whenever the compressor cycles. They even have built-in heaters in 12v or 24v so that they don't ice up. Since we started installing them at work we rarely get more than a few drops of water at the tank drains. Might be something to consider.

 

[Floridianson]

Jones that was a question I asked last week and no one replied so I looked at NAPA book and made my best choice. DA34110 $364.00 ouch! 24 volt like you said and replaceable cartridge. Kicks out water, five stage filter with heater. I was going to put it after the tanks just to protect the new brake booster.

SierraHotel how are you measuring pressure difference. If by sound maybe the drain valve is blocked and sounds like nothing there but there is ?
I had the drain on a string thing yea there great,till a piece of crap get's in it. Then your late for the run as you had to take apart the thing to get it to stop leaking.
KISS it and with the money you save get the wife a flower will pay off better in the long run!

 

[Jones]

Good idea Floridianson. I lucked out and found one at my truck wrecker but then put in fresh filter, compatible fittings, and changed to the 24v heater so I didn't get away all that light but still, I think it's a worthwhile investment. If it's possible, you might consider plumbing yours in ahead of the tanks too so that they and any check valves are protected from condensation and freezing and rust-out.

 

[Floridianson]

Don't think I will. Not real worred about the tanks. Had them off yesterday all fittings out and looked real good. Just spent 400.00 on new brake booster.Want nothing but clean air to it, no rust no nothing.
I did rip out ALL copper lines and put in sinflex the DOT plastic line. Tanks to horn sinflex.

 

[SierraHotel]

Floridianson,
That old mill is still standing, but no thanks to some juvenile delinquents that set it on fire. It’s just a stone shell with no floors or roof. A private group is trying to rehab it, but as always, money is an issue. I think they have stabilized it, but that is about it. The area between Route 15 and the mill, where Disney was supposed to go is all houses now. I figured they’d get a toxic waste dump after they ran Disney out. Everyone was crowing about how the land would stay pristine. Like Barnum said, there is a sucker born every minute. The traffic gets worse each day. I’m waiting for them to install parking meters on 66 from Haymarket to 495 (both ways) during rush hour.

My pressure level at the gauge is full up. I think that the problem is something blocking the drain, but wanted to check the board first in case it was something else.

I take it that the driers, which I this is a good idea, are a tad expensive. When I drain the tanks, oily air comes out. Is this a problem or is there an inline oiler…and if there is, where is it.

Thanks for the input.

 

[rmgill]

Well, I think the oil comes from the air pump which is lubed by a bit of oil from the engine. In this setup, I don't think a little oil is bad. Probably a good corrosion preventative.

 

[Floridianson]

Ouch! Mine no oil so far. I hope the rebuild stuff is still out there cause I'm sure we will all need it sometime.
Sorry to hear about the mill. It was all intact when I was 20 but that was thirty three years ago!

 

[Towman2277]

Oily air wouldn't be a problem, very helpful as a lubricate. Same principle of putting a few drops of oil into air-tool lines before adding air.

 

[Floridianson]

SierraHotel sorry to post to much but was thinking. My compressor filter was looking real bad and still trying to find one. They had one that could be cleaned. Check your filter and see how bad it is. Talking out my gas hole here but wonder if it was real bad could it draw up oil from the walls etc. Don't know but check and see if it clears any.
I am thinking if no filters are to be found the compressor head has been taped on the inlet port with threads. Don't remember what size but looked like npt. From here we could use short pipe and use some outher filter that clamps on the pipe. The other thought was a in line filter and go to the air cleaner with one inch hose. Hooking to the engine air filter does not filter the air as the air filter fitting is on the outside of the filter. Was used to just get it out of water splash if fording.

 

[rmgill]

Well, pulling from the air intake side and the long path should at least help prevent getting big chunks of dirt and such from the intake of the air compressor. Odd that it doesn't have an intake from the clean side of the filter though.