Vac Question

[wildlifewarrior]

Hi everyone,
So we have been having some vacuum problems, one of them is that our delaval 73 sucked sap and seems to have bent the shaft of the rotor. It doesn't spin freely now, it would also pump a fair amour of oil out the exhaust, (no reclaimer) it would actually cover like the stand, nearby trees with a film. We had a friend let us borrow a pump and that worked for him the other week and when I hooked it up that one had quite a bit of oil coming out of the exhaust too. We had tried a guzzler and that didn't seem to have valves sealing correctly. So after thinking and talking to family, I started wondering if it wasn't part of our set up.

We have 100 taps, 5-7 per lateral, to 1 inch mainline, about 800 feet of mainline. There are two ladders one is 12 feet the other is about 10. We always have good vac at the top of the line. We have a hobby releaser which works great (except when one of the piston tubes fell out since been siliconed). Any idea why things keep failing?

Do we just have horrible luck? Now we are going to to install some check valves and hook the guzzler up again and hopefully that will get us some sap from at least the front of the lines.

Thanks for looking into this guys.

Mike

[maple flats]

You must have a moisture trap to keep sap out of any pump except a diaphragm pump. An oil reclaimer will catch the oil spray and then send it back to the pump. The guzzler needs no moisture trap. I used to make my own moisture traps using 4" PVC pipe, a drain at the bottom, inlet half way up. mount it vertically, put a racquet ball in it, and then at the top, reduce to 1.25", then have a tee with cap straight up, and out the side of the tee, go to a larger PVC pipe to carry the vacuum from the pump. If you get moisture in the trap, the ball floats to the top and plugs the exit. Then, shut the pump off, open the plug at the top, push the ball back down , drain the trap and you're back in business.

[wildlifewarrior]

Oh sorry, I did forget the moisture trap, that was filled the day it sucked sap…

Mike

[Russell Lampron]

When I had a DeLaval 73 I put a ipe on the exhaust that was 6' tall. That helped keep the oil in the pump and only the vapors came out of the top. I then had that exit into a 5 gallon bucket near the top. The vapors would condense there so that near by object didn't get covered with oil.

Your pump could be turning hard because of a sticking vein or lack of lubrication.

[BAP]

Sounds like your releaser is not working right if it let sap get to the pump or a large quantity of sap came in and flooded it. Make sure your it is level and all the moving parts are lubed up with some food grade grease or silicon. The pump can be fixed. Pull off the end plate on the side opposite the pulley. Look in and see if the sap turned into syrup and has gummed everything up. Then pull the other cap off and take the drum out. Most likely everything needs a good cleaning. Brake cleaner works good. Make sure to clean the vanes and the slots they go into. Make sure the vanes move freely in the slots when done cleaning and put some oil on them. Also, clean the bearings good and oil them up. Chances are the shaft is not bent, but that everything is gummed up so much that it can't turn smoothly. As far as blowing oil out, without an oil reclaimer, they will do that when they get warm under high vacuum. If you get your pump fixed, I suggest adding an reclaimer.

[BreezyHill]

Mike:
Take off the face plate of the pump. Spin the rotorto12-3-6-9 orientation. Mark each vein and slot with dots 1-4 to denote them. Take each vein out and lay on a perfectly flat hard surface. Use a bright light source to check for any irregularity in the vein. If non found replace the face plate and tighten to clearance...is there any scores on the face plate??? If the face plate is/was to tight the rotor will spin hard.

With the veins out does the rotor spin more easily?

If not then you need to check the bearing, bushing in the face plate and the housing for any marks or damage.

If the rotor is the issue then there should be a single point that it rubs if the shaft were bent. This is unlikely since the shaft spun in the rotor before.

Likely there is a damaged/ warped vein from trying to pump sap.

Let me know what you find.

Ben