Vac pump swallowed water

[nicholastzito]

Just fired up my delaval 75 today. Ran okay with the 15" vac control, which I removed, and it proceeded to run like a champ.

Unfortunately the moisture trap has been filling up pretty quickly. Not sure why.

I left for a few hours today, and found the pump exhausting water. I drained the pump of fluid, and refilled. It runs, but barely, when attached to my lines.

Suggestions?

Will taking apart the pump and drying it out help the pump run smoothly again?

Also, why the heck is my moisture trap filling up so fast? I would say it must be filling within 2.5 to 3 hours. I can post a picture of the releaser setup if needed. I didn't get to put the vac gauge on the end of the lines to see how much I am pulling.

[maple flats]

Take it apart, drain all sap and re assemble, then fix the moisture trap issue. That should not fill quickly with water. Try to figure out why it is pulling sap into it, rather than just being a safety. Also, the trap should shut off the flow if it fills and stop the pump. My pumps are gas powered, and if the trap fills a ball floats up and plugs the air flow to the pump, this stalls the engine. On an electric vacuum pump it would just be a switch that is thrown.

[BreezyHill]

Nick have no fear75 is built for this situation with milk.

No need to pull her apart as long as you were using vac pump oil. Best thing to do it drain the oil let it stand over night and poor off the oil and it is good as nearly new. It can be reused if you so desire.

Reclaimers recycle the oil just like this as the water is drained off the bottom.

Now if you were not using vac oil then you will need to remove oil feed line to the bushing on the face cover...9/16 wrench for this. Then use a half inch to remove the bolts that hold down the name plate cover and the oil dip stick.

Carefully remove the cover and try not to damage the gasket. if it damages then remove it and you will need to use rtv blue to seal this cover back in place.

Under this cover there is a stainless steel screen system. This will need to be removed and flush out the reservoir with diesel fuel or kerosene.

Never use gas as it will eat of the seasoning of oil that covers the surfaces and will lead to rust formation. when this is cleaned of the gunk that the motor oil and water made clean the screen system carefully in the diesel or kero.

When clean put it all back together. If the gasket needs replacing use a thin film of rtv on the base going around the bolt holes and place the cover back on and tighten the cover down.

Use compressed air to blow out the oil tube. If it has a blockage then we have an issue.

Use the compressed air to blow into the oil inlet on the face cover. This oil goes into the bushing and rotor on this pump. If the passage is blocked then the cave cover will need to come off and the small flat bladed screw in the shaft needs to be removed. To clean the shaft use compressed air after removing each vane and cleaning them. WEAR SAFETY GLASSES... gunk will come out of a hole on the four slots on the rotor. Use a piece of 030 or 035 mig welder wire to clean the hole if needed.

Replace the screw and be certain the vanes did not slip out of place.

Replace the cover with a small amount of grease on the shaft but not on in the oil hole.

tighten the face cover on and spin the pump by hand very slowly...in one full turn to the pump you should her four vanes drop...it does not matter which way you spin the rotor the vanes will drop into the rotor just fine. If you hear four you are good to go...otherwise a vane is still in need of cleaning again or the slot s dirty.

Never ever use motor oil in these pumps unless you don't mind taking 2 hours to clean them every week. Motor oil foams and vac oil separates water and oil.

Post a pic and I will let you know your issue.

I work on these all the time, one 2 75s and 2 73s and have sold several rebuilt and modified ones. Mine run 28+".

75 has an added dripper to cool it the 73 is fine til the ambient air goes over 55 then she needs a fan.

Let me know if you have an issue.
Ben

[nicholastzito]

No reclaimer on it. Letting it drain for the day.

I'm curious why this pvc manifold is here. I got it with the pump. Seems to me that when the releaser fills and is emptying, the pump sucks the sap through the manifold. Can I just plumb the pump directly to the releaser and not worry about sucking sap?

113681136811368

[BreezyHill]

You have a diamond in the rough!

What you have is a reservoir/accumulator that a priority circuit attaches too; with a minor plumbing oops.

The vac going to the top of the 3" pvc, I think it is that size, needs a gate valve between the tee and the reservoir to limit how much vac is supplied to the reservoir.

What happens now is: the res fills some with sap when the releaser is dumping
the releaser closes and sap is pulled into the releaser until it needs to cycle
any extra sap in the res is still there and more enters again during the dump part of the cycle
this extra sap keeps accumulating until it is sucked to the water trap and then into the pump.

This system is great as you are keeping vac on the ubing all the time and have an accumulation of sap ready to quickly flow into the releaser.

The other oops is the distance from the releaser from the accumulator and pipe size.

If you were able to fill your releaser quicker, it will cycle faster and be able to keep up with your flow. The releaser feeder line looks like 3/4" if you could get to 1" of even 1.5" off of the releaser and to the blue connector thru a larger check valve you should solve the problem.

the 90 elbow is a major flow reducer, then the check valve is also a bottle neck, so when the flow is entering the releaser the line is likely only about 3/4 to 7/8 full...if you cam off the res with a sweeping 2" elbow to a 2" check with a bushing to reduce to you 3/4" feeder pipe you will increase the flow by at least 30%. If the check is the spring loaded style then increases of 50% will be expected.

Don't feel bad, I have made the same mistakes on my system and this is why I now know. If you take a pair of long pliers you can pull out the spring in the check and change it to a swing...just make sure that the hinge is on top of the unit will not function as well...work with gravity not against. I am not sure but on looking again at the pic the check looks like a foot check valve...fat around the entire middle section...if so, not what you want at all. vary limiting to free flow.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Clear-Swing-Check-Valve-BRAND-NEW-PVC-Pool-Spa-Pond-Plumbing-/111629830673?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19fda80a11

this is what you want for a check valve...I have several of this in my system in the bush. Lost one this wed. when the temps went down to 6 and she now has a duck tape coat to stop her from leaking. She is on a 1" ladder dry line riser.

Your 75 is my # 1 in my top three pump fav list. If it was me and she did the same I would have opened the oil drain valve and let her sit for 3 minutes tops. closed the valve and refilled with vac oil and turned her on. The worst thing to do is to let her sit cold with moisture on or in her. When hot from running she will dissipate the moisture and have no rusting. I like to run them up to 180 degrees for this reason. I don't like to go below 145... my 73 likes to run at 140 and she has a tendency to have water in the oil at the end of a day. I simply open the drain valve and let out the water and she is fine.

So let me know if you need anything else.

By gate valve I mean on that you rotate the handle several times around to close the valve. More adjustable than a ball valve and already has a flow restrictive design.

Hint if you use pipe dope on pvc it will seal and be able to be pulled apart if you need to change the setup some. I often use this trick when I plan on changing or taking down a setup annually or at some time in the future.

Good Luck!

Ben

[BAP]

Depending on how long your pump ran with sap in the drum, I would consider taking it all apart and give it a good cleaning. I have seen DeLaval pumps that ran for a long time with sap in them make syrup inside the drum causing the vanes to bind up and not move in and out like they are supposed to. It doesn't take much binding to make them not achieve good vacuum. If it was only plain water, it wouldn't cause problems, but the sugar in sap, or the fat in milk can gum them up so they don't move and lubricate well.

[lpakiz]

Nicholas,
Maybe I'm not seeing the pic correctly, but there should be vac going ONLY to the very top of the unit. Maybe it's the pic, but do I see vac going to the lower, side port also? That would be wrong. That port should be for wash up only. Plug it.
Sap should enter and leave the jar only thru the very bottom port. Suck it up into the jar, and dump it out thru the same port.