Bought an 80Gal. 5HP 3 phase Kellogg American air compressor that used their 335TVX pump from craigslist. Fellow seemed nice enough but was in a hurry so we just ran the tank up to 125PSI to see if everything ran and held pressure. I small talked for about 5 minutes - No apparent problem at this stage. It's a mighty big machine for an 70 year old to be muscling around so I decided to handle it by dismantling into parts - motor, compressor, and tank. Took my time and loaded and transported without issues.
Reassembled and fired off the machine to check that my phase wiring turned the compressor in the correct direction - no apparent problems. Went to perform a "final" adjustment on the belt alignment by moving the large pulley on the compressor - Hello Huston!
I rocked the pulley back and forth while I was pulling the pulley into final position and heard a heart stopping noise coming from the cylinders. Not just a scraping sound but a huge metal against metal gouging sound that persists for the major portion of the up stroke.
I've play with more than few motors and pumps along the way but never anything like this before. What bothers me most is that I know I knew better than to buy a piece of used rotating machinery without rocking quills and shafts!
Now the purpose of the post:
1) remind potiental buyers to ALWAYS disconnect power and rock compressor pulley, by hand, and listen for "foriegn" sounds. Air suction and exhust normal, scrapping/gouging not normal. You should not even hear the rings against the cylinder walls.
2) Normally, I would just start pulling the pump apart to investigate, But this time I thought I'd pause the action and ask the forum if anyone is aware of similar situations and what to look for.
I suspect a broken rod.
Regards to all,
- Dan
Reassembled and fired off the machine to check that my phase wiring turned the compressor in the correct direction - no apparent problems. Went to perform a "final" adjustment on the belt alignment by moving the large pulley on the compressor - Hello Huston!
I rocked the pulley back and forth while I was pulling the pulley into final position and heard a heart stopping noise coming from the cylinders. Not just a scraping sound but a huge metal against metal gouging sound that persists for the major portion of the up stroke.
I've play with more than few motors and pumps along the way but never anything like this before. What bothers me most is that I know I knew better than to buy a piece of used rotating machinery without rocking quills and shafts!
Now the purpose of the post:
1) remind potiental buyers to ALWAYS disconnect power and rock compressor pulley, by hand, and listen for "foriegn" sounds. Air suction and exhust normal, scrapping/gouging not normal. You should not even hear the rings against the cylinder walls.
2) Normally, I would just start pulling the pump apart to investigate, But this time I thought I'd pause the action and ask the forum if anyone is aware of similar situations and what to look for.
I suspect a broken rod.
Regards to all,
- Dan