wont reach cutoff pressure. no leaks.
by David Dollarhide
(Montezuma de Cobano, Costa Rica)
Hi. Just a working guy in the boonies of Costa Rica. Second details attempt. Stood up to grab my camera to upload a couple pics and tripped on the charger cord, kicked my laptop onto the (lucky) carpet. Restart. Perhaps I was going to get a little nip from the freezer too. Here we are again.
Problem #1: My buddy bought a p.o.s. chinese thing called a Gladiator CE 350 but to be honest, has served fine for 3 years. Keeps our motorcycles pumped up and runs an impact chisel or small paint rig okay. I am painting the new gutters with an airgun. I made a homespun gasket to replace one under the pressure switch from an innertube, and it works fine. Parts are hard to get out here, and there isn't anyone within 80 miles I trust to take it apart except myself. So now it doesn't reach the cutoff pressure, which is set at 100psi and it always did before. I run it up a while, with the output valve closed, shut it off, and it holds its pressure fine. No leakage. It's on its own circuit. Oil level is good, ( a little bubbly perhaps?) No water trapped in the ballast. Air filter is clean. Just runs. It's not reaching, and not cutting off. Did I just notice that air is coming out from the oil fill nipple (little orifice on the cap) while it is running? Didn't notice that before. So.. ask the computer, your site is first up, appears intelligent and worthy. I read and learn about a 'reed valve'? Is it located at the top of the piston where that tube winds over to from the
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Bill says...
Delighted to hear from you David. As a fellow "little nip from the freezer" type (pre-mixed martinis and Stoli) I can relate to the "kick the laptop over" game.
Your symptoms point to either a reed valve issue or an internal gasket failure.
Please have a look at this page:
http://www.about-air-compressors.com/compressor-will-not-build-pressure.html
And then follow the links to the various pages that give more details.
Cheers,
Bill
