To fellow Lightning owners, I bring us hope...

Ok here are pics of the second stage HP cylinder. The “tunnel” that the piston ride thru looked questionable, liked maybe it’s been worn out of round where even new piston rings riding inside of it wouldn’t create a tight enough seal. So, that’s when I decided to just buy an entire new head assembly from Tuxing. At only $45, I mean, why not.



Also the inside had pitting on the aluminum that I could not buff out with any scotch brute pad or wet/dry paper. I only used distilled water st 60%, Zerex diesel rated coolant at 40%, along with 6 ounces of water wetter coolant additive for the 18 months of its life, so not sure where the putting came from.

New Head assembly from Tuxing, already with brand new check valve, check valve spring, the coolant containment o rings, and even brand new bolts came with it. Just a remove and replace deal.









The side side by side photos show new cylinder head parts on left vs old on the right.



i also ordered an entire new re seal kit that came with new compressor seals and piston rings, so I replaced the new rings that I ran thru the old head earlier when I dove into this, with another set since I figured let’s just start with fresh parts right from the get go.



i had to put a very thin coat of assembly lube on the piston shaft and rings as trying to slide the new cylinder head over the tings it was a tight fit.

So, after the new head on the second stage went on, the pressure got up to a bit over 2000 psi, but it took 20 minutes to get there and it never went further that that. A call to JKing and he suggests I look at the low pressure head then. I had my doubts, to be honest, as when I pulled the air filter off and placed my thumb onto the intake hole I felt suction, but went ahead and opened things up anyway thinking what have I got to lose?



the seal kit from Tuxing came with all the gaskets for the low pressure side, along with a new stainless blade reed, along with the two prongs to hold it in place

My first attempt at doing this two days ago there was air blowing out past the paper gasket seals, and upon inspection there was a slight bit of the old gasket material I failed to scrape off. So cleaned that more, scuff padded the sides of the adjoining pieces, and laid a slight thin coat of this anaerobic rtv sealant on each side of the paper gaskets, and a semi thick bead on the edge of the coolant channels on the cylinder head that the coolant passes thru. This is the only way to seal the coolant in, as there are no o ring seals for this like in the second stage head. 



Gave the sealant 18 hours to cure before turning the compressor on this morning for a test. 



Well, game on!! All fixed! Just need to replace that leaking air line I mentioned at the start of my post. 

All the parts on both heads can only go back together one way. Take pics of it helps during disassembly.



Here one more time is Tuxing website for parts- tuxingcn.com. 

So, have no fear, fellas, as there is hope for if and when your lightning starts giving you problems. Knowing what I now know, if this where to happen again, don’t waste time diagnosing if you’re positive you have no air leaks. Just replace the piston rings, the entire second stage head, and the seals and reed valve on the low pressure side. 



This thing is now way quieter, less shake, and the suction at the air filter hole is way stronger than before. I can’t believe it shot up to the 4600 psi in less than 3 minutes like it did.

I’ll see what I can find 

https://www.tuxingcn.com/checkout

heres all the parts I ordered. 



Im all bolted up so no video. If you’ve got some mechanical ability and a cell phone to take pics it’s easy peasy. 



If you compare my pics as you take it apart youll see the pics is all that is needed. The reason I went to Tuxing is the parts are identical.



as far as dealing with Tuxing the experience was excellent. Just check your emails at midnight and do your chat then. 

For the o ring kit make sure and email them this pic and tell them you want this exact kit as it’s for the Lightning:

@SigP220- payment for parts was done thru PayPal, and it took just under 3 weeks to get to me. 

So, to summarize all of this(I was tied up with my son most of the evening helping him qualify for his very own first car loan, lol) this is what I would do, knowing what I know now:

Check all the easy things first, like the two check valves. One is at the discharge line coming out of the second stage high pressure head, and the second one is at the intake connection at the aluminum desiccant block that your fill whip is connected to. Run a test(see note below about draining the coolant). If still no pressure build up after the check valves have been changed out or cleaned out, follow steps 1 thru 3. This is all assuming you’re having this problem of no pressure build up and you are 100% leak free at all connections. 



1. Remove the entire second stage high pressure cylinder piece by piece, just so you can see if there is pitting in any of the aluminum parts. That’s a total of 4 long bolts, and 4 short ones, all 5mm Allen. Any signs of pitting, just stop, remove the four short bolts at the bottom of the cylinder head flange, set that head aside, and just order a brand new head assembly from Tuxing. In the link in my last post I went ahead and put all the parts that I ordered in my cart, so you know exactly what to get.

2. On the o ring seal kit, I was unsure if the check valve springs included in the kit matched what came in the hatsan kit, if you haven’t dove into your hatsan kit, you don’t need to order this o ring kit. If you already have, or want a spare kit, make sure and copy and paste that kit I have pictured above and message Tuxing thru email that you want this exact kit, and copy and paste this kit on your email.

3. The gasket set- it comes with the one gasket you’ll need for the high pressure second stage to seal up your new head, and will also include the two you will need for the first stage head along with that stainless reed blade, and the two tiny rods to hang that reed blade. Even if yours still looks good, change it out. 

I found a lot of carbon type crud in the section of the first stage that has the embossed V shape, that’s in my second to last post, first pic. Clean that all up along with the aluminum mating parts with a scotch brite pad, and wash everything up with a cleaner degreaser solution. 

When scraping off all the old paper gasket material on both heads, please shove a shop towel or piece of paper towel into the cylinder so that debris does not get caught up on top of the inner piston cylinder. I would buy some gasket remover from the auto parts store, as it makes scraping the old gasket much easier. Finally, take your shop compressor or canned air and blow all debris away from the entire cylinder areas. Clean is king here for sure. 

Heres another final tip- prior to even opening anything up, drain all your coolant out and just plan on replacing all of that with new. When you disconnect the cylinder heads you’ll have coolant all over, and it makes a big mess, especially if your using anti freeze in the mix. When your all bolted back up, just run clean, fresh water thru the system to flush out the old coolant remains during your testing procedure. If you have to reopen anything, all you’ll have spilling all over is plain water, instead of slimy coolant. If all checks out ok and your compressor is all like new again, drain the water, replace with the coolant and distilled water as spec’d out by hatsan, and plan on changing out the oil for new. 

While you’re at it, change out the tampon filter in the coolant tower, along with the desiccant beads in the aluminum block. Your hatsan o ring kit along with the o ring kit from Tuxing will have the green Viton O rings for these areas. 

Awhile back, I posted my maintenance filter replacement here on this forum. The correct desiccant beads for the desiccant block is ACTIVATED ALUMINA, as told to me by Hatsan, and can be purchased from amazon. Do a search on my post, as I’ve also well documented that maintenance procedure step by step with pics. 



By doing all all of this, your compressor will be like new again, ready to take on many many tank top offs.

After I change out that hard line that’s leaking, I’m gonna clean this thing all up from the coolant spill marks, and put this compressor up for sale. I will have enough o rings, piston seals, and gaskets to do two or three more rebuilds. Only reason I’m selling is to replenish my bank account from the used Alkin I just recently purchased. I am totally confident now with all the work I’ve put into it along with new parts, it is in near new condition with just under 15 hours of use on it. 

Just lookee here what HatsanUSA provided for me, to share to all Lightning owners. A parts list accompanied by pics. They also apologized for responding late, and are sending me a new hard line along with another complete reseal kit, so now I’m definitely good to go.

Please print this thread out, blow up all the pics, bookmark it, do whatever you gotta do to save it. We all know how posts get buried in the archives, and I may not have this on me anymore in the future. 





Parts list with part numbers







Parts with part numbers attached- enjoy!

If you look closely, even though the actual pics of the parts aren’t shown, like as an example the crank case breather or the air intake filter housing and filter assembly, these parts are still noted on the parts list, so you have a number to use when reordering parts. 

JKing, that’s my understanding. I’ll know for sure if that air line comes in within a couple of days

Already posted this on another tread of mine inquiring about the hard air line compression ferrules. Found these at Belmetric 6mm compression. Got these in about two weeks ago, and just got around to sealing up the hard line going from the filter tower down to the fill whip block. So, as I stand, my Lightning is 100% repaired and ready to do its job. 





It took a whole minute to go from zero to 4640 psi, and a small leak on my test gage at the fill block was all I had, nothing to do with the compressor. The 4640 held.





Here are the ferrules from Bellmetric on the hard line, to the left. The darker toned one is from Tuxing that came with other parts I ordered. The part number is listed on the invoice, at .89 each. If you need these for your Tuxings, Yong Hengs, Air Venturi compressors, Just note that they are for 6mm line.

So, to conclude, between Bellmetric and Tuxing, parts for these Lightning’s are available, so no worries about parts availability. Seal kits are also available thru Hatsan.