Excessive blower vibrations

[Ross Buettner]

Hi everyone...

I've not posted in over a month. Because I am a one man show, and working 7 days a week! I read here and there, but never really posted much without the ability to follow up with it.

My Prochem Bruin II has a blower that is starting to vibrate the whole machine. Bolts are all tight. Oil is newer (less than 50 hours) and lubed this winter. I blow WD40 through it every time.

With this vibration, I am wondering what's going on, what can fix it, and where to get it looked at or rebuilt?

Thanks...

 

[Desk Jockey]

My 805 has been knocking for several months now. My distributor said was ok it only knocked at low speeds. Although it was in for pm the other day and he said I better start thinking about a blower. We had it out Saturday at the university cleaning and it ran great no knocking. Not sure what he did but I can check, but I think he just lubed it.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I'd slide a feeler gauge between the lobes to make sure it hasn't been knocked out of time. Most of them are center timed but depending on rotation sometimes they are tweeked one way or the other to get a bit more lift by closing the tolerance on the leading edge of the lobe. Result: not always pretty.

 

[Jim Martin]

a lot of times vibration is a sign of a bearing going out...they normally vibrate a bit first... take the belts off and grab the pulley and wiggle the thing up and down....left and right...see if you feel a lot of play in it....

if the bearings are weak then the lobes may start tapping each other....not much tolerance in these things.......

 

[Desk Jockey]

Jim if it is a bearing is it repairable or just run her till she blows? My plan was to hopefully get through some large jobs then pull it and replace it this winter when we dont need it.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Bearings are cheap.

 

[Doug Cox]

I'm betting its not the blower.

 

[Jim Martin]

Jim if it is a bearing is it repairable or just run her till she blows? My plan was to hopefully get through some large jobs then pull it and replace it this winter when we dont need it.

its repairable....and they are not that hard to do....if you get them while they are just vibrating then chances are that you will save a lot more in the long run...normally when they start to go....that vibration will start egg shaping the inter race..then all kinds of thing can go wrong....

now here is the other side to this.....

if it is on the gear side then you have to watch the timing marks and make sure that everything goes back and she is lined up real good....there is no room for forgiveness in these blowers...

the biggest thing to take into consideration ( and I am sure some will disagree )...is the hours on the blower...if it has a lot of hours on it then don't bother...going right back to the tolerance that these things have....as the hours start adding up and things start to wear down...everything is wearing down together....and when you set new bearings on a blower that the lobes have a lot of hours on then the tolerance is not balanced...it will work..but..they don't last like they should...IF you decide to replace them ..then do all of them...your odds will be much better.....

it is also my understanding that HM is finding this same thing out and are shying away from rebuilding blowers with a lot of hours....

 

[bob vawter]

i've saved many a knocker...
by running fresh clean water thru it........



jus sayin'

 

[joe harper]

i've saved many a knocker...
by running fresh clean water thru it........



jus sayin'

TRU-DAT...

 

[glenboy]

do you take the silencer off BOB

 

[dealtimeman]

i would like to see a video of the blower cleaning technique of fresh water flowing thru.

 

[Ross Buettner]

Luckily there's a GD (Sutorbilt) distributor right in my town...

They are going to look at it... but, a replacement is 1185.00 I've seen Jimmy naked

I guess the other dealers are getting list.....

 

[Desk Jockey]

Ouch! But it could be worse, my distributor told me mine would be around $3,000.00.

I told him I've often wondered what it would look like to see one blow up. -sniff

eat shit!

 

[Larry Cobb]

i would like to see a video of the blower cleaning technique of fresh water flowing thru.

Here's one from a misguided TM manufacturer,

you will get a kick out of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teJzXkZ8hcg&feature=plcp

This is flooded suction directly into a Roots blower !!!!

Larry

 

[joe harper]

BUTLER...."requires" you to FLUSH blower...to adhere to warranty maintenance policy.. I've seen Jimmy naked

 

[davegillfishing]

Just did mine this morning. Flush it with about 2 gallons of super hot water then follow up with some wd40.

 

[bob vawter]

i would always use a garden hose....... in the waste tank blower inlet...start with a slow stream....increasing finally to a full flow.....followed by a two min dry run.......yes theres usually a drain plug in most silencers....if not it'll blow out........

 

[glenboy]

bob i have an old steam genie silencer and i am kinda iffy of blowing water thru it,maybe i could come by some day and you could take a peek at my setup and advise me :?: :?: hey now

 

[bob vawter]

i have an old silencer you can HAVE....don know if it's good or not......

 

[Zee]

So who has the right video of a blower flush?

For example on an El Diablo with a 45 roots and silencer?

I have done a small amounts of fresh water (maybe a hlf gallon) thru the blower when my waste tank got a lil too full and sucked up some of the water/foam thru the blower. Followed with some wd40.