In article ,
EW wrote:

"jim" wrote in message ...
EW
you have two valves in almost all compressors:
SNIP............

Jim, may I ask another set of questions about the valves!

My compressor's twin cylinders flow compressed air out the large tube to an
"assembly" prior to the tank. This assembly has a vertical "safety valve"
and an electrical gizmo that tells the motor to shut off at a certain
pressure (mine is 125 psi, and has worked there until recently). Then the
assembly's output goes to the tank.

Hmm ... not like my old Sears compressor -- a 12 gallon
two-cylinder (but not two-stage), with a combination controller switch
and a regulator. The big line goes from the cylinder head directly into
the tank, and a separate line comes back out of the tank to the
regulator/switch. A smaller line goes from the cylinder head to the
regulator/switch, and that is what vents the cylinder to air when the
switch commands "stop". The safety overpressure valve is screwed into
one side of the regulator, and the output connection into the other
side, both facing out towards the operator.

OK. Is the "load valve" that you talked about at the cylinders' head
assembly, where I may get to it easily, or closer to the tank at the other
assembly? I assume the "check valve" is in that lower assembly somewhere,
and it will be a bear to take off.

I think that the check valve is in the head of mine (as one of
the two reed valves) and the load (or unloader) valve is in the
switch/regulator assembly.

IF the load valve, which I hope is the problem, is on the head above the
cylinders, then I will try that first. I should be able to see something
wrong, if that's the problem, right?

What I would suggest that you do (and what I did when I
discovered that the regulator fed out tank pressure no matter what the
setting) is go to the Sears web page, and spend some time chasing down
the service section which gives drawings for the various assemblies for
the different models. Those drawings told me enough about how my
regulator/switch was made to guide me in the disassembly, cleaning and
reassembly. It had some white corrosion in it from long-trapped water.
I scraped that clear, and added a touch of light oil to the moving
parts, and it now works just as it should.

Note that it was only the regulator which was misbehaving on
mine. The shutoff switch stopped the compressor at 100 PSI as it should.

So -- go to the http://www.sears.com page, download the images
and print the screen to save a copy.

You know -- one other possibility with this, since yours is a
220V one, and something which hit someone else in the newsgroup
recently. Someone had wired a new power cord onto the motor, and
somehow wired it so the 220V motor was actually getting only 110V. :-)

Good Luck,
DoN.
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