1974 Chevy Nova My first project car

My Compressor Will be the End of Me

My air compressor has caused me many nuisances and many hours of fixes since the day I brought it home. It was inherited when my uncle passed, so I guess I have no right to complain. But then again, I'm not complaining, but only documenting my troubles.

Before I could get the compressor running, I had to take the existing 220 volt line to the garage and figure out what the inexperienced person did when connecting the line to the house. They had 2 220 volt lines and was only using 1 1/2 of them, but only 110 volts! In a couple phone calls to my dad, a few trips to Home Depot for breakers and such and numerous trips into the basement to the breaker box and back out to the garage, I finally got the 220 line hooked up correctly and used 1/2 of the other 220 line for my 110 needs in the garage.

After a few weeks of running the compressor, I was having a problem with moisture in the line. It was suggested by my uncles to buy an "Automatic Compressor Drain Kit" from Harbor Freight for 10 bucks. I looked at the instructions and it seemed easy enough. In an attempt to install it, I tightened it too hard and split the cheap metal, rendering it useless. A few cuss words later, I installed the original drain plug.

The next day, I bought a new drain kit. While installing the kit, I realized that I needed different parts to fit onto the pressure switch. While removing the old parts and installing the new, again, I tightened the part too tight and rendered an irreplaceable part on the pressure switch useless. I spent a few more days researching prices for a new pressure switch and I believe I ended up buying one from Ace Hardware or Home Depot. After purchasing the switch, I realized that installing it will be a little tricky, because it is larger than the original. I ended up having to install it on a tilt. It works, but it is not aesthetically pleasing.

I also noticed that the drain plug needed more clearance on the bottom where the drain kit is installed. That was the easiest fix of all of them. I got some cinder blocks and set the compressor on those.

Great!!! Now I have a working compressor...NOT!!! After 5 minutes of using the compressor, the air coming out of the cylinders blew a hole in the poly-whatever (plastic/rubber) tubing needed for the auto-drain kit. It turns out that the air coming out of the cylinders was too hot and melted the tubing.

I then came up the ingenious idea to create some kind of metal coil to allow the air to cool before bringing it over to the rubber tubing. After a few trips to AutoZone and Sears Hardware, I did just that with some break line and compression unions and fittings and such. The air was still hot towards the end of the coil, but it was enough not to melt the rubber tubing.

Part of the reason for the overheating was because it was running longer than it needed to, to get back up to pressure. This was due to the fact that the first day that I started messing with the compressor, I changed the oil and removed the cylinder head to see if the cylinders needed cleaning. I subsequently ripped the head gasket that was melded to the head. So, since day one, the compressor has only been about, if I had to guess, 60% efficient. This made the compressor run longer in order to pressurize. I had purchased gasket material from a swap meet and replaced the gasket by cutting my own.

So, it turns out that a free inheritance may have cost me more to fix it than it wold have cost me to buy a new one. But, I learned a lot in the process and I'm satisfied with the work I put into it.