Chosen Solution
I bought this air compressor at a garage sale, it ran but we only ran it for a minute. It will run fine if empty up to about 50 PSI, then shuts off and will not restart for a while. If you do not let the air out it will run again and build more pressure, right now it is holding around 100 PSI. It is about 11 years old. No leaks, and the pressure regulator adjustments seem to have no effect. First I replaced the entire pressure sensor/on off switch assembly. No change. I replaced the entire reed valve assembly and those gaskets, no change. Check valve, new copper tubing connecting both as the check valve was leaking. I replaced both capacitors as both were bad. The old ones were wrong as well, 60 vs 50 and 150 vs 250 . Still same issue, I suspect it may be overheating but it does not seem overly hot. Also I ran it with water valve open, with no pressure build up and it still shut off after 3 or so minutes.Any help would be appreciated as I am at a loss as to what to do next.
Hi Bryan, I’d go for the piston kit, especially since you see scoring and actual distortion with that bump. So given that the shutoff didn’t happen when there was no piston in place, I think it’s worth a shot, since the piston seems associated with the shutoff. It’s a bit of a risk, but the completely unloaded motor runs it. Nothing else has worked. If you do it, I would still seek to clean the inside of the motor, and if there’s any way to even “fake” a shroud on the fan end I would do it. The compression heat is being removed through the cylinder head which is finned, and the shroud directs the air through the fins. It may not need it, but since you found the cylinder & piston damaged, I think heat could be the culprit. Best, Bill
