separator malfunction

[woodcutter]

Has anyone had their separator malfunction and suck sap back through the vacuum pump? This is a lapierre and the ball that is suppose to float up and seat in the line does't always work, it bounces around and doesn't seat. This is the second time it has done this in 2 seasons. I have lubed all moving parts and tried to bend the cage the ball is in, and I thought I had it solved until yesterday. Any Ideas?

[maplwrks]

Check all of your o-rings. If you are missing an o-ring, it won't seal properly. Anytime that my releaser malfunctioned was lack of maintenance on my part.

[maplecrest]

do you have this hooked to your main line or testing? if hooked to your main you may have some leaks bring a lot of air into the releaser. are your fittings at the releaser tight? could be air there. got an air leak somewhere

[dano2840]

is it one of those tall lappiere releasers? thats like 4ft tall and has a sap chamber on the bottom and a vac chamber on top?

[woodcutter]

tHE RELEASER IS ABOUT 2' TALL WITH CHAMBER ON THE BOTTOM. When it malfunctioned it was operating fine,pulling about 16 psi and releasing every 8 minutes. O rings look good , used mineral oil for lub at the beginning of season. This is the manual releaser and is installed level and solid. This is the second time it has done this and I have been lucky to have noticed the change in sound over my intercom at athe house. The last time was in 07 . I have it inside now and will clean and check it over and relub. I am considering purching a condensing tank from CDL with a ball to stop from floooding the pump. There is a tank that came with the pump but it just fills with sap and doesn't have a way to shut off the flow back to pump.

[mountainvan]

I got one of these whole house filter, put in a racquet ball and it has saved my pump twice!http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=89378-59019-WHKF-DWHBB&lpage=none. Works great as a moisture trap.