Air compressor failure

[resqur]

This morning I started the deuce to drive home from work and she would not build air pressure. I heard a bit of a belt whine, which is not unusual, and thought nothing about it. I lowered the drivers side engine compartment access and found this. There are two holes in the compressor case and the rods are in pieces in the base. I found pieces of the rings as well and will post pictures when I finishing fishing all of the pieces.
While driving to work yesterday all was well; oil pressure- normal, air pressure- normal, braking- normal. She had full air tanks when I opened the drains when I parked her. I checked the oil and the level is normal.
Does anyone have a thought as to the cause? Unlucky me and it was just time for the 40 year old compressor to give up?
I appreciate any suggestions for a cause or trouble shooting.

Sincerely,

Rich

 

[hoop]

Your dang engine is too clean.....Pull the pan also, and clean it.

 

[resqur]

I plan to pull the pan to ensure no fragments are left behind.

Thanks

 

[73m819]

Think it has been fixed by now as this thread is about 18 months old

 

[resqur]

73m819...I just posted this today, 04/25/2012.

 

[phil2968]

What date are you looking at Ron?
I bet Ron looked at your join date.

 

[73m819]

I have NO IDEA, whatever one it is it is the WRONG ONE, think I NEED to slow down, maybe take a nap on the couch

 

[Motorcar]

I agree, your failure was caused by lack of proper lubrication due to engine bay being too clean. If you ever come this way I will pay you a large sum of money to make mine look that good.

That compressor is a bit of a pain to change where the mounting nuts are on the back side. I ended up removing the radiator support bracket that runs across by the pump/pulley, it's only three bolts and made it much easier. I got a new base gasket from Erik's for just a couple of bucks. Be careful not to get any RTV in the oil supply hole in the base or you may have another failure. I think there is a good picture or two in a "leaking comp base gasket" thread around here.

 

[resqur]

Motorcar,
Thanks for the information. I'm not looking forward to the busted knuckles I'm about to earn with this newest project.

 

[doghead]

Are there any signs of RTV on the base gasket area? I've seen several failures due to the oil supply hole being plugged from RTV.

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

Ron seems to jump the gun on a lot of posts.

 

[steelandcanvas]

I have NO IDEA, whatever one it is it is the WRONG ONE, think I NEED to slow down, maybe take a nap on the couch

Get it together Ron.

 

[m-35tom]

what ever you do, do not ever use rtv. it has no place on most engines unless it is intended to BE the gasket. only a lazy person, someone who is not a mechanic would ever use that stuff. 2 clean surfaces with a new dry gasket and just a film of permatex 3H will not leak.
tom

 

[resqur]

DH, I'll look for RTV when I tear it down. Thanks

m-35tom, Thanks for the advise. I will use the Permatex when I reassemble it. Tom the old deuce is running great with your gear set. I apologize that I haven't gotten back to you from your last call to check on things. I have been going through everything and the brakes were the last step before I could get her back on the road.

 

[resqur]

Well, I got the compressor swapped out. It seems that I'm to fault for the failure. A poorly made gasket blocked the oil passage. Live and learn. While I had to remove the oil filter to swap the compressor so I decided to instal the spin on oil filter kit from Jatonka while I had her apart.

 

[Gunfreak25]

That is a clean engine compartment. Do post pics.

 

[Amer-team]

So how did you get it so clean? That is beautiful. Did you have the engine out for other work and clean it then?

 

[spicergear]

Hey Ron, I think he SOLD it too...got a real SOLID price for it.

 

[Heavysteven]

Is that copper tubing for the fuel return lines? Looks nice

 

[resqur]

I had a catastrophic engine failure last year so I purchased a good take out and went through it before the install; cleaned, painted, re-torqued.
I had a few bad segments of the original plastic fuel return lines so I replaced them with copper. I think it will hold up better here in Las Vegas where the temps can get a little uncomfortable in the summer.
I'll try and get a few pictures of the engine bay up this week. I'm currently at work and don't have access to my pictures.