Need assistance on what and where to check

[Bigragu]

Well, what gives?! My Lightning compressor, well is in need of help. I went to use it this morning to top off my tank, and saw that the digital gage readout hung onto 0000 for longer than usual. I turned the compressor off and the auto purge wasn’t that loud blast it typically does. Long story short, I disconnected the fill hose from the tank, and placed my thumb against the hose end, and could barely feel any air coming out.

The compressor sounds normal, in fact a bit quieter. I just used it a few days ago, last week, and like always, it has performed flawlessly. I understand when weird things happen in bits and pieces that lead to failure, but this one, I don’t have a clue what happened. Even disconnected power, let it sit, re attempted the fill, and same thing. 

So, before busting out tools to tear into it, is there any place I should look into first? I was wondering with the cold temps in the garage, if anything froze up inside the block the fill whip connects to, that has the desiccant media in it, as that’s the last place for moisture to hang out in before it gets purged out. 

Your assistance is welcome indeed, and thank you!

 

[leadfoot]

If it has been in below freezing conditions, I guess just let it warm up to see if there was some ice in the line. 

My AV 4500 psi compressor went bad once. It turned out to be the low pressure valve plate, but it still made 60 BAR (870 psi) of pressure.

 

[Bigragu]

As far as any clogs in the fill whip I ruled that out as I also did the thump pressure against the QD connection at the fill block. My thinking is even if it was clogged down hill, the digital gage would still read pressure, but it’s not.

 

[xindaris]

Did you remember to close the air drain all the way.

 

[sigp220]

Big Guy,

My only suggestions are try the deadhead and see if it builds pressure. Second as it's running stick your finger in front of the air breather. It should try to pull your finger in. If it doesn't you have compression problems. I'd make sure you have air going in before going out.

I hope this helps a little

 

[Bigragu]

Thanks, guys. Good call, Sig. I’m gonna try it again tomorrow and check. After my last reply I went out to try again, and what’s weird is I let it run for around 3 minutes with a dead head, and usually in 3 minutes it would’ve gotten up to 90 degrees in temp. I noticed 76 degrees is where it topped off at, and the cylinders along with the hard air lines never even got warm to the touch in those three minutes. 



Im hoping worse case is I got a major leak from one of those hard lines that cracked or something. I e already filled out a service form to the folks at HatsanUSA. We shall see.

 

[Houli]

Bigragu, I doubt your garage is freezing (cold yes) even though lately we have had 30* night time temp. Takes colder or longer duration for the garage to actually freeze things in our garage, I live across the ravine from you and I too used to worry about my garage freezing. To verify worries or concerns place a cup/bowl of water next to your compressor and check it in the morning. If nothing else it may help ease the mind.

Do hope you get your compressor up and running and nothing serious!

Cheers

 

[Bigragu]

Thanks, Houlie, lol! I didn’t get a chance to look at the thing today. I shot targets instead, lol. I’m down to my last few psi of air left in my two tanks, so I better get moving. I just wish there was a cheat sheet for diagnosis like they have in auto shop books, that lead you right to or close to the source of the problem. What gets me, is there were no signs leading up to this. So many times you read of folks saying, “I think my compressor is on its last leg” or “compressor is starting to make funny noises” but none of that for me. Last week perfect flawless fill from 3200 to 4500 in 13 minutes. Yeah, so I’m at a stand still. 

Tomorrow I will start with leak detection spray, check the intake air as suggested, then maybe disassemble the gold filter tower. For the sake of helping others out, I will post up my findings. 

If I was rich, heck, I’d look at it as a great excuse to order the Alkin compressor, lol.

 

[Bigragu]

Been a tough last two days. Lost my F350 diesel crew cab with only 130,000 miles to tow truck driver today(totaled my truck day before thanksgiving, so insurance had it towed out) and now my compressor. 2020 is starting out like a bang, lol

 

[Bigragu]

Did a search on google on folks that have had similar pcp compressors not building pressure, and one suggestion that I may check is the check valve. Any of you lightning or air Venturi owners know where the check valve is located? 

 

[airgunfans]

I don't have the Lightning but the Yong Heng. From pictures posted by owners here, I came to the impression that it's just a Yong Heng with the head split into high and low. The motor is more powerful of course. The appearence of the parts are identical. Base on your description I would agree that some of the check valves or reed valves are not working properly. It's quite impossible to have leaks so big that you couldn't feel air coming out from the outlet when the compressor is not connected to anything. Here are the locations of the check valves on the Yong Heng. All are inside the bases of compression fittings, one at the outlet of the low-pressure stage and the other at the outlet of the high-pressure stage. I believe the Lightning has similar arrangement.

You may want to check out this thread on how the OP got his AV working again after cleaning the reed valves : 

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/air-venturi-compressor-wont-build-pressure/

 

[Bigragu]

Thank you, sir, for the link to that tread!

 

[Bigragu]

Parts Are In! 



Brand new HPA second stage head, brand new o rings, seals, and piston rings, and a separate pack of an additional 10 piston rings. Tomorrow I’m gonna attempt to get my Lightning back to like new condition it’s these fresh new parts. I’m going to basically have an entire kit of seals and then some, cause all I’m going to do is drop this head right in as it came already pre sealed with new o rings. 

Big thanks to the folks at Tuxing for being the only vendor assisting me on this, and to JKing for pointing me that way. I want to add one more thing, because of the time differences I would read emails from Tuxing in the middle of the night, but regardless, they contacted me everyday to make sure I was ordering the correct parts. Here’s their website, fellow lightning owners, cause these guys will be your go to for parts and assistance-

tuxingcn.com



Keep you all posted. 

 

[L.Leon]

Subscribed and bookmarked, thank you Bigragu.

 

[Bigragu]

I posted this on another tread but want it here for those that subscribed. This was given to me by Tuxing, the sizes, if I choose to just order my own o rings from oringsandmore.com. I just need to let you know though that the first metric number given for each o ring is the outside diameter, so if your o ring vendor of choice uses the inside diameter for o ring size call out, you just need to minus the second number(o ring thickness) twice from the first number to get your ID.

if you would rather just buy and stock up on this exact same kit that comes with piston rings, check valve springs, delrin seals, etc., just save this pic and email it to Tuxing telling them you want this exact same kit as it is exactly what came with the Lightning compressor.

The green o rings are Viton, as an FYI, and are the ones that go inside your filter tower.