Can we talk about shop air dryers getting ignored until it's too late?

I was at a shop in Tulsa last month helping a buddy with a 20-year-old compressor setup. Nobody had touched the air dryer in 5 years. We spent 3 hours chasing a moisture problem that was blowing seals on his injection pumps. Water in the air lines wrecked two pumps before we figured it out. Why do so many guys skip basic air system maintenance until something breaks? Has anyone else had a similar issue with water damage on sensitive diesel parts?

2 comments

2 Comments

lilycraig22d ago

Oh man, that hurts just reading it. Two wrecked injection pumps because of water, that's a nasty pile of cash right there. I remember back when I was running a small fleet of old Dodge Rams with the Cummins diesels, we had one that kept sputtering and missing on cold starts. Spent two weekends swapping injectors and chasing wiring gremlins before my buddy mentioned checking the air dryer on the shop compressor. Sure enough, it was full of sludge and water was getting into everything. We got it sorted and that truck ran smooth as butter after that. It's crazy how one little part that nobody thinks about can mess up a whole operation.

maryh9621d ago

Yep, check your fuel supplier's tanks too, that water's gotta come from somewhere upstream.