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

Been there, done that. Clean it up, dry lube ONLY, run it to break it in
again. I have a 115k BTU that runs fine, an older 40k btu job that wants
to hang up the vanes just like yours. That one is such a PITA that I
have a pressure guage (it runs at 3 psi) attached to it so I can see
when it is starting to hang up and needs some attention. Again.

There is an outfit in Indiana (name escapes me) that stocks parts for
all brands of torpedo heaters. Prices are reasonable, not cheap. I'll
look up the catalog if you need it. I've ordered injector nozzles and
such from them.

Karl Townsend 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

Hey Karl,

Even "EDM carbon" is self-lubricating as necessary. Try cleaning and
just re-assembling, no additional "lube" of any kind.

Not quite what you describe, but we used air-check timers with a 2"
or a 3" carbon piston (2 sizes.depending on need) in a Bakelite
housing, and after the annual cleaning (dry!! just wipe and blow
clean) re-assembled with out any further. Any attempt to "make it
better" always resulted in a hang up later on, or a change as to
operation.

Biggest cause of dirt was that drawn through the felt pad acting as a
filter to atmosphere.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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

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

I recently found some dry molebdynum disulfide lube in an aerosol can
at Tull Bearing in Mnpls. Spray it on, a thin film of dry MolyD is
left when the solvent evaporates. I wonder if that would work in
your pump. MolyD is very slippery stuff.

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

There is an outfit in Indiana (name escapes me) that stocks parts for
all brands of torpedo heaters. Prices are reasonable, not cheap. I'll look
up the catalog if you need it. I've ordered injector nozzles and such from
them.


Yes, please.

Thanks

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.

Are you kidding? There ain't nothin' US made anymore. Bet the US Army even
sources 1/2 its stuff from China. Heaven help us if we ever fight a real
war.

Karl

On Tue, 04 Oct 2005 18:12:36 GMT, Karl Townsend wrote:

Are you kidding? There ain't nothin' US made anymore. Bet the US Army even
sources 1/2 its stuff from China. Heaven help us if we ever fight a real
war.

....especially when it's with China...

Dave "Note I didn't say 'if'" Hinz

Look at:

http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...les/heater.txt

Look at:

http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...les/heater.txt

http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...les/heater.txt


This is just what I was thinking of. My carbon impellor has slight galls,
would you true this up in a surface grinder? Based on results of this
rebuild it looks like I could go a little more than 0.003 clearnace.

Karl

BTDT
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...retired_files/

See heater.txt, and the accociated jpgs

JR
Dweller in the cellar

Karl Townsend 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





--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive
The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me
No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dependence is Vulnerability:
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Open the Pod Bay Doors please, Hal"
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.."

On Tue, 04 Oct 2005 18:12:36 GMT, "Karl Townsend"
remove .NOT to reply wrote:

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.

Are you kidding? There ain't nothin' US made anymore. Bet the US Army even
sources 1/2 its stuff from China. Heaven help us if we ever fight a real
war.

Karl



Actually...both of my torpedo heaters are US made. Both are marked
Dayton..but I was able to track the manufactures down to a US company.

Ill look up the name in a bit.

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

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

Parts are available at heating.products.bz/parts.html