Air Compressor replacement BB FE 5.9L Cummins

[Mountain Gnome]

I'm a vegan, typically. I went veggie for a year back in the early 1990s. Then I went to Fuddruckers to get "The world's best hamburger" as a treat to "reward" myself for being a good boy. That was one of my favorite places to eat. I loved those burgers! But I took that first bite and ... EEEW! ... I used to like this stuff? I couldn't eat half of it.


Then I went to Mexico a few years later. We found a restaurant on the beach, and the owner/cook/waiter asks "what do you want".
"What do you have?"
"I can make you anything. I know everyone in town, and if I don't have it, I can get it within minutes. What do you want?"
"How about a filet minion steak?" my friend asked.
So he got his steak. That was another of my favorite foods before becoming a veggie head. I took a bite. Again, EEEW! And I could feel that lump of meat in my belly go through all the twists and turns for 2 days.


The next year or two my friend knew a guy who worked at a high $$$ restaurant. They got fresh tuna steaks that were caught that morning off the Georgia coast, flash-frozen on site, helecoptered and flown into ATL, and served that night. 1.5" thick, grilled to perfection on charcoal. I took a bite of that and it was really good. Reminded me of what steak was like, but better, before I became a veggie head.


Then another 10 years passed. I went to Japan to find my wife. We had a great 4 days together. The last night we ate at a seafood restaurant, and she got shrimp. I took a bite. It was ok. I never really was a seafood guy before, but I liked it better that time than before. But then came toilet time later that night. OH boy!



Now I've been eating Greek yogurt for the probiotic Acidophilous which is supposed to "rid the gut of candida fungus". that really helped my digestive system all together.


And about once a year, I eat pizza. God I love pizza.


But food is food. The chemicals in our food supply.... Agent Orange, rebranded as Roundup, for one. As Maligator noted on another post, you fat cells encapsulate the toxins, when your body's self-cleaning system gets overloaded. You gotta de-tox.


But yea, sugar. The #1 drug in the world. The U.S. was founded on that drug trade. Dare I say, the most deadly, for the reasons Rivetboy states. Diabetes is one of the #1 killers in the industrialized world.


And yet, I've been a bad boy lately, and eating chocolate chip cookies. At least they are "organic", like that means anything now that the Feds dumbed down the definition of it 20 years ago.


But then we all have to make decisions about what we do to ourselves, and we are the only ones who can make that decision. I quit drinking alcohol, also. The longer I stay away from it, the less I want it, the more I see how insane drinking that stuff was.

[Rivetboy]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

People lose weight as vegans because everything tastes like **** and you don’t eat ..

Give me my organic beef and cheese anyday

Hey , whatever flips your switch analog or digital. I was heavy for the last 30 years and feel the best in a while and have easily kept the weight off nearly three years. Also, am married to a Tremendous cook so that has helped a lot. Plus, my cholesterol dropped 100 points. It all comes down to you.

[cadillackid]

Vegan diets are fine but the anti- meat culture that seemingly many who convert push out is not fine .. I know equal amounts of healthy and unhealthy vegans and non vegans ..

Like you say you have to find what works for your body
But the one size fits all diet of “plant based or bust” by supposed nutritionists is what is BS

In my opinion the issue is hyper processing which nowadays includes a lot of plant based “fake meat” vs going truly organic . Think local farmer organic and not “Whole Foods market organic”

[Rivetboy]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Vegan diets are fine but the anti- meat culture that seemingly many who convert push out is not fine .. I know equal amounts of healthy and unhealthy vegans and non vegans ..

Like you say you have to find what works for your body
But the one size fits all diet of “plant based or bust” by supposed nutritionists is what is BS

In my opinion the issue is hyper processing which nowadays includes a lot of plant based “fake meat” vs going truly organic . Think local farmer organic and not “Whole Foods market organic”

Truth! We get a veggie box every week. Tried the fake meat one time and have not since. (barf)We are vey fortunate to have a large supply of organic food around us and label reading is an art form. I still fire up The Yoder for the 4th of July and smoke tri tip and chicken for family and friends. Last year did not even taste it year before kinda got sick. Oh well, kinda like Mt G at Fuddruckers. Still drink the oldest Whiskey I can find though...

[Mountain Gnome]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Vegan diets are fine but the anti- meat culture that seemingly many who convert push out is not fine .. I know equal amounts of healthy and unhealthy vegans and non vegans ..

Like you say you have to find what works for your body
But the one size fits all diet of “plant based or bust” by supposed nutritionists is what is BS

In my opinion the issue is hyper processing which nowadays includes a lot of plant based “fake meat” vs going truly organic . Think local farmer organic and not “Whole Foods market organic”

The unhealthy vegans/veggies I know eat all canned foods and processed junk.


When I went vegetarian, I did it slowly over a year. Then the next year my muscle mass shrank 10% (I was always the skinniest, shortest, smallest shrimp in the sea, no fat!). During that time, my endurance increased. Then the next year my muscle mass came back, and I was stronger than before, and have more endurance.



Personally, I never liked the "fake meat" or other stuff made to comfort you into being a vegi. Just eat the vegetables!



Those cookies lately (like Heroin!) are the only real processed food I consume lately, unless you consider the (organic) corn chips. They are just corn and oil, though. They are not my "main" food source. I guess I eat canned black beans, if you call them processed. But always with fresh veggies and avo.

[Mountain Gnome]

The Schrader valve toolset I ordered said 10 days for delivery (UUGG) but it came late on Monday, only 3 days! By then I was into a welding project, as it actually cleared up enough to dry out the wooden deck where the welder plugs in - third time in a year! And the last time was a 2-day event, before the rain returned, whereas I've had the better part of a full week (waiting for both these tool sets) this time. So I finished the welding project on Tuesday. (Still more projects to do, though). I got the new Schrader valves installed, and let the unit sit overnight to check for pressure buildup under the caps (none! yea!) Meanwhile, it started raining again. Today was nice enough to remount the A/C compressor on the motor.


Forgot to mention that as I installed and finished tightening the last bolt on the A/C bracket that I was having trouble with (see earlier posts), laying on my back with my head about 1"-2" lower than my hips (on a hill), I put my arm over my head and cocked my head the same direction, to pull on something, and my top neck vertebrae adjusted and BOOM the world started spinning so fast I couldn't see. My neck is usually a complete mess, and these top 3 vertebrae are badly mis-aligned, and the top 1 or 2 put pressure on my inner-ear. Seems I re-aligned them, and the pressure came off, and the "signals" were no longer "dampened", and my brain thinks I'm on those playground merry-go-round things. Or the tea-cup ride at the amusement park.


This happened once before about 15 years ago. I bent over at the waist to touch my toes with my legs strait (doing basic "yoga") and it felt so good, I stayed there for 15 minutes, and de-compressed my spine, and re-aligned most of it, including my neck. I stood up, and wow, so dizzy! But I could feel with my fingertips that my neck bones were in place. Just so happens that I was installing a transmission in my truck that week, and every time I laid on my back, the world would spin so fast that I could not see! So I had to install it "by touch" because it was my work truck and I needed to work!


So I wasn't in a rush to re-mount the A/C compressor this week. I still feel "dizzy" and a bit "nauseous" at times, especially when I lay down. Like riding on a boat in the open ocean, or when my bro took me in a 3-seater plane above the mountains in Wyoming (where nothing below was anywhere near flat) and cut the motor and started dropping. Boy that was fun! But I tried, I really tried to hold onto my lunch...shouldn't have eaten pizza when I was a vegan just before boarding the flight. Working on the remount today was 2 minutes at a time, then 5-10 minutes of my head in my hands, then back under the bus, upside down again, twisting my head and neck. At least I could see today.


I gotta get a bottle jack, get the front tires off the ground, so I can "properly" (I think? I guess?) bleed/prime the power steering pump. I barely added a quart of fluid, and the reservoir is full-up, so I think there is a bubble in the pump. I don't want to put any back-pressure on it until I feel sure that the fluid is circulating properly.


I bought a bottle jack at Harbor Freight, and it would not properly go back down fully, so I returned it. I started another thread asking about a better quality jack.


Question: the air-compressor that I replaced has a motor oil line going to it, and the old one had oil in the bottom of it. Should I prime the motor oil using the motor starter with the ECM unpowered? Of course I will respect the starter, and only go in 5-second bursts, with 20 second waits. I plan on doing this for the power steering pump anyway, but that shouldn't take long at all. Should I prime the motor oil for longer? The new unit came oiled, but not with a pool of oil in it.

[Booyah45828]

I wouldn't prime it for the compressor, just start it up and let it run. So long as the compressor was lubed upon assembly, there should be enough lube in there for it to be fine until the engine oil shows up. It will take less then a second for engine oil to show up while it's being started, so you'll be fine as long as there's oil in the pan.

There is a book process to bleeding the power steering, and the reason they tell you to jack up the wheels is to make it easier to turn it lock to lock and so that you you don't flat spot the tires.

But I don't usually raise the front axle to bleed the system after a pump replacement. Most vehicles have a large enough reservoir that I just start it up and keep adding fluid to maintain the correct level. If you didn't replace the gear box, or dump all of the oil out of it, the only air present in the system would be in the lines and new pump, so you won't have to do all the turning to bleed air out of it. Your pump is typically below the level of the reservoir, so the air in the supply line will be taken out by gravity, so there shouldn't be a bubble in the pump.

After the level stabilizes with it running, maybe go lock to lock a time or two and see what the level does, top it up if it drops and then turn it lock to lock a time or two again. Keep repeating the process until the level stabilizes.

Some vehicles are a pain to bleed, and some don't respond well to the wheel being turned with the pump not spinning, making it necessary to have the engine running to bleed the system.

[cadillackid]

I physically can’t turn the wheels if the pump is off and bus is stopped , also want the wheels off ground of setting the poppets on the gear since you get one shot .

[Mountain Gnome]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

I wouldn't prime it for the compressor, just start it up and let it run. So long as the compressor was lubed upon assembly, there should be enough lube in there for it to be fine until the engine oil shows up. It will take less then a second for engine oil to show up while it's being started, so you'll be fine as long as there's oil in the pan.

That was my thinking, but I have never worked with an air-compressor before. I was wondering if, like a motor, the crankshaft "splashes" into the oil-pool and this coats the cylinder walls.

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

Your pump is typically below the level of the reservoir, so the air in the supply line will be taken out by gravity, so there shouldn't be a bubble in the pump.

The way the supply hose runs from the reservoir, it is like a P-trap in a sink. The hose is 1" inner diameter (or close, by memory). The pump came primed from the factory, but lost a lot of oil as I was installing it. It looses more as the shaft is spun, so I feel like it won't let the "bubble" inside go "backwards" through the P-trap and up to the reservoir.


Funny thing is, I don't remember it being in a P-trap configuration, but for the life of me, I can't see now how it couldn't be.

Originally Posted by cadillackid

also want the wheels off ground of setting the poppets on the gear since you get one shot .

That went over my head.


I've replaced plenty of p.s.pumps before, and yea, they all seem a bit different. I always forget if it's Ford or Chevy, that when you turn the wheel with the motor off, the fluid can overflow the reservoir. I hate that mess. But I' always find it easier with the wheels off the ground. Done it before on the ground, though, and the pump "whined" about it at first.



Thank you both for your time and responses!

[Mountain Gnome]

I realized that I my 6-ton jack-stand was too tall for my front axle to manage, and too short for the frame. So I skipped jacking the front.


I thought I pulled the ECM fuse, but the dash light sill came on. I tried to just give it a bump, but it hit near 80°F today (wasn't it freezing when I started this project, aiming to be as fast as possible?) so the motor started within a revolution or two. I cut it right off. No catastrophic sounds. That's good. In fact, I swear it is much quieter now. These old Cummins (5.9L at least) are known to be one of the loudest diesels, but I always thought I could hear the extra "clap" of the compressor, also. That "clap" seems gone.



The p.s.pump fluid did not drop in the reservoir. I double checked everything, and started it back up, and let it idle until the air-pressure came up to 120psi on the dash-gauge, and the relief valve went "PHHHHisht".


The steering wheel would not turn while the motor was on.



I checked the p.s. fluid and it was still over-full. It should have dropped a bit if the pump was pumping. I'm sure there is a bubble in there.


The only p.s.fluid supply hose I could find was a high-pressure reinforced hose. I saw some "heater hose" but it was Gates, and I've seen lousy quality though time with them (fuel line dryroting and leaking gas in under 2 years), and it did not say it was rated for oil.


I fought hard to get that hose on it's barbed fittings at both ends. They are not coming off without cutting them. Near $6 a foot, so I hope it still reaches..... But I'm gonna have to get the hose off the pump and pour oil directly into the fitting on the top of the pump to re-prime it, and/or figure out how to burp the air out of the p-trap.


I might think about driving the bus forward up my driveway. It is steep, and that might burp the bubble out without having to remove the hose. But if it doesn't I gotta back-down the driveway without power steering. That might not be too bad, and worth a try before fighting again with the hose.....

[Rivetboy]

MtG so good to read your post with the numbers 120 and PSSSSSHHHHHTTTT!

[Mountain Gnome]

Originally Posted by Rivetboy

MtG so good to read your post with the numbers 120 and PSSSSSHHHHHTTTT!

Thanks!


I forgot to say that the coolant lines that go to/from the motor head to the air-compressor head got a little warm (like the motor head did) and did not leak. That was a major concern. Hopefully when it gets fully warm and pressurized, they still don't leak.

[Mountain Gnome]

OK!


Drove it up the hill today and within 10' or so, the power steering kicked in! Yea!


But I couldn't steer it to keep it on the pavement until then. Now it's shovel time...


So job done, except for checking for leaks underneath, once it dries out a bit this afternoon after the rain this morning.


I slept (in the bus as always) with just a t-shirt and no blanket last night. Warm and muggy! Now, this afternoon, I might put on a sweatshirt.


Time to pack and be gone! before the muggy weather molds my woodwork again...

[PNW_istheway]

great information that I found useful . The task doesn't seem as daunting as much now. I'm as prepared as much as I can .
lets go !