Surge Alamo vacuum pump oiler

[doocat]

I have a surge Alamo pump with oil lines that run to each side bearing. There are sight glasses on either side and there are small pieces of wire or needles in the line that are visible in the glass. Are these adjustment pins for the flow of oil and if so how mainy drops per minute of oil should be flowing under load through the sight glass?

Kind of a long question but thanks for the info!

Craig

[Parker]

There should be an adjustement above the sight glass that you can adjust in the line,,these set the oil flow rate,,I set them so you get a drop every second or 2,(when running),more when it is hot out,,less when it is cold out,,I think that is more than most people?? I have had problems whith these pumps getting to hot so I am a littel parinoid,,,you might want to make sure to oilier lines are not plugged up befor the season gets here,, Good luck

[doocat]

Do you have the piece of wire or needle in yours? I was wondering if these are adjusments or just for the oil to drip off of.
I completely disassembled the pump and cleaned it. When I ran it the oil was dripping very slow but ran faster when I plugged the vacuum line and it had a load on it.
Thanks, Craig

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[mountainvan]

If you can get a reclaimer, then you don't have to worry about adjustments. My alamo came with the relaimer on top, I moved it to the side on a stand, and it worked great in Jan.Look at what sugaringfor2long has on the for sale with photo section, he helped me get it straight.

[doocat]

I assume that the hollow tube is what I am refering to as a needle. I did not know it was hollow. It is pretty small. Would that be adjustable or does the vacuum draw the oil out of the reclaimer through that tube at a constant rate.
I am just trying to make sure that I do not under oil the pump when I fire it up.
Thanks, craig

[doocat]

Let me know how much you want for the owners manual copy or how to get it.

[Parker]

I wonder if I could scan it and e-mail it to you???not sure how to do that,,,anyone??? send me a PM with your adress and I will mail it to you.......

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Parker]

I was looking at mine in the shed last night,,those needles in the sight glass are there for the oil fo form a drop on,,if they are not in there then you cant see how much oil the pump is getting as the oil will form a thin layer inside of the glass,,,,

[sbmaple]

We ran our surge alamo for the first time today .I don't think it is getting enough oil,2 to 3 drops a minute.It has a reclaimer on top of it.But i dont see were there any adjustment on the oilers.Toke the oilers apart,cleaned them and seems to be a stone filter like on the end of an oil nozzle.Can this be replaced with something that is adjustable??? Were can you get it??The oil reclaimer doesn't seem to do anything but catch the oil until you drain it out,No way for the oil to run back into the resevoir.It was pulling 11 inches with 50+ taps unplugged (almost all the end rings are unplugged 7/16 spout,5/16 plugs on the rings,just got the tubbing up recently)Also put a 12v radiator fan out of a car blowing air on the pump.Just want get more oil to the bearings.

[Parker]

Ill go down and look at mine this morn. befor work--BUT-- I thought,,right where the sight glass for the oiler is if you unscrew those too nuts you get more oil flow,,reading the pamflet I have on the pumps it states "oil flow rates of 2-8 drops a minute",,,the pamflet also says if the fill cap for your oiler is plugged up (It is pouros) it will affect oil flow",,,also if you have too much exhaust pipe (more than ten feet) or too small an exhuast pipe (smaller than what comes out of the top of the reclaimer) it will affect oil flow,,I belive it is vacuum that pulls the oil thru your oilers,,if you plug your leaks the pump will pull harder on the oilers??? I definatly would not worry about it if the pump is not getting too hot,,,,,I have replaced the stock oilers with GRAINGER part #1u794,,put one on each side and run a line from each into a 5 gallon jug,,pretty expensive and that pump was worn out,,the set up did not work well for me..............

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[mountainvan]

I had the same problem as you with the oil slowing down. Mine was/is the stone getting plugged by gunk in the oil. Change with new or take out and filter the oil and add some marvel mystery oil, this should help. I replaced the wires in the oiler with a smaller diameter, gets more flow. I also took apart a car oil filter and put it over the stone to keep the gunk out, I think a fuel oil filter would work good too. You may need to run it with diesel in it to clean the gunk before putting new oil in it. Even though I've done this once, should do it again this week, I still pull on of the oiler tubes off and blow through it to get the gunk of off the stone, everytime I add gas, about 6hrs. My reclaimer is off to the side of the pump so I have 3ft oiler tubes. I was recommended to do this by sugaring42long(look at his pump in the sale section). This is my first season using it, so I'm learning too.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[sbmaple]

I toke the the pump completley apart and cleaned with brakeclean.Flushed out the oil resvoir,soaked the filter stones over night in brakeclean.Before we tried to use it.The oil tubes have good oil flow.With the oil tubes unhooked it will drain resvoir in a hurry.One problem putting it back together was the pump turned real hard.Had to make 2 cork gaskets for the bearing cap(were one oiler is screwed in) opposite the pulley.it turned freely after that .put a new seal on the pulley end.The 2 large o rings on each end the body seem to be good.The vanes are good.Not much to this pump.I did start the pump with oil line unhooked and the stone filter removed there seems to vacuum there. I going to look into the part That Parker mentioned.If we had more time I would throw away the stone filters and fabricate reclaimer like what the dealers sell.If I remove the filters now Ithink it would be out oil in a short time.How long should you run the pump to know if its going to get hot???I ran it for about an hour with the valves to mainlines off holding 18 inches at the releaser.Was warm to the touch.How many inches will this pump max out at???Hold the regulator weight down briefly it will run almost30 inches.

[Parker]

HOLLY SMOKES-30"!!!!!!!! the best I ever got out of mine was around 19"!!! sound like you have a good one,,with the Vac. that high did the oil flow rate increase,,I looked at mine yesterday and I have a jam nut on top of the oil sight glass that you can adjust the oil flow rate with,,,,,,,Now on the reclaimer,,the 76's I have run the oil that gets blowen up into the reclaimer does not go back into the pump,,that just catches the some of the crap getting blowen out of the pump and you throw that oil away (pretty nasty stufff)

[mountainvan]

Sounds like you got your pump working great. My pump ran for 48hrs straight in Jan. and never got too hot to touch. I've had the vac. up to 25", but have it set to run at 15-17 depending on the sapflow. Get ready for lots of sap with that pump hooked up to your trees!!

[sbmaple]

No the oil flow rate doesn't seem to increase with high vacuum.There is no jam nuts on the oilers.There's a fitting that holds the stone filter in place that screws into the sight glass ,the oil line hooks to the other end of it.Thats all my reclaimer does too, catchs what ever blows out the pump and holds in top half . Maybe if I talk dairy equipment dealer I can replace sight glass with that adjustable type. How much oil adjustment do you have with that type???Got alittle time to work out the bugs it was -10f here this morning.Glad to hear get ready for lots of sap,the buckets just don't seem to do it anymore.

[Parker]

Ill bet the stock oilers will run fine if you use a high quality oil (I run AW32 early in the season and as it warms up go to a thicker and thicker oil,,have run 30 wt. at the tail end of the season) like I said befor I try to get mine so I get a drip about every 3-4 seconds when it real hot out,,when it is oiling that much there is ALOT of smog comming out of the muffler and you dont want you tank down wind,,,if you PM me your adress I send you a copy of the owners manual Kevin gave me..........

[maplekids]

I have a surge alamo pump with a reclaimer on top have run this pump about 10 minutes and can not see any oil in the site glass dripping it has long rods with a rubber o ring in the middle they do not look like a stone filter for the oil these are in the line above the site glass it looks like it would keep oil from dripping when the pump is not running any idea how this works thanks