On Tue, 04 Oct 2005 14:35:53 GMT, "Karl Townsend"
remove .NOT to reply wrote:

There's a little air pump on my torpedo kerosene heater. It wants to bind
and stall, kicking out the overload. I just found out a replacement heater
is $300.

I took the whole thing apart. Its just a hockey puck, made of EDM carbon
graphite, with four sliding vanes sitting off center in an aluminum chamber.
I cleaned everything, finishing with Brake Clean. Then put it all back
together and used just a dab of dry graphite lube on all the surfaces.

"The Kid" tells me he did the same thing three times last winter.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking of using my graphite magent on my surface
grinder and shaving a thou off each face of the hockey puck shaped impeller.
Good Idea? Or will the extra clearance kill it?

Karl


There are two choices Karl..buy the $25-35 repair/rebuild kit from the
manufacture (assuming its US made), or mount an air regulator on the
back of the fan housing, pipe the air pump line to the regulator and
run it off your air compressor.

Mine, runs properly at about 10 PSI. Someday Ill buy the repair kit.
The regulator was free, the kit is not.
Oh..I put a 110vt air solenoid in line with the power switch, so air
only runs to the syphon when the unit is turned on.

I got the heater for free, simply because the pump, like yours, had
quit. Works very very well. I recently picked up a slightly bigger
one, fully working, for $10 at an auction.

Gunner

Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to
clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are
so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry