Clarke SE16C150 - pump rebuild tips

[gasket999]

Well I bought (another) compressor. Now have a pair that will displace 22CFM between them.

Its stamped 2014 - so not very old, but its been through the wars (and was cheap). I tested it before buying by running it up to pressure - took about 5 mins and sounded pretty good.

However, there's two issues.

1) I drained the oil before loading it into the car and it was black - like engine oil black. Not sure that this is normal.

2) (the bigger issue) it is covered in red garage floor paint - the lad I bought it from was spot on and dead honest and said that a tin had fallen off a shelf and landed on it. He'd cleaned a lot of it off, but its everywhere and quite chalky - I strongly suspect that its fallen on it while the pump was running.

I'll spend a couple of days on it and will be stripping it in order to give it a full service and inspection. But, what to inspect and which parts to order in advance?

I'd like to do the job thoroughly - so think the head should come off as a minimum, so a new gasket will be needed. The air filter cover and element was removed (and lost) while he was cleaning the paint back off - so a new filter housing and element will be needed. And in light of this I have to assume its been run a fair few times with no air filter (including the test run) - so I'll need to see inside the pump to check for contamination and may well need to fully strip it in order to clean it out properly.

Is there a rebuild kit for these things? If not is there a list of parts that anyone could advise me to change to be on the safe side? Valve plates? Piston rings? What about muck in the pipework/cylinder?

I'll have to get onto clarke parts direct so may as well make a list.

The manuals online for these are massively generic and don't have a parts list, just a basic maintenance schedule on page 17:

http://www.clarkeservice.co.uk/manuals/compressors/se_ve.pdf

It suggests that inlet and outlet valves, big end and main bearings and piston rings should be periodically inspected and replaced as necessary tho.

I've built car engines but never a pump like this.
Any tips would be very welcome. Thank you.

 

[rtbcomp]

The black oil would suggest the pump has been running too hot.

 

[rtbcomp]

^^ Depends what the cut-off pressure is set to. Sounds about right though.

It would be interesting to price up the cost of re-building. Bear in mind a new one comes with a guarantee and a brand new tested receiver.

 

[AndyStobbs]

Can you let us know how you get on with machine mart regarding parts.

I tried to get in touch with Clarke when I was asked to look at someone's compressor and needed some parts. The lad I got through to at Clarke was a complete dunce. Tried MM and they got it arranged in no time,couldn't believe how cheap the bits were.

I have since bought an SE26C200 compressor cheap for my second unit, but is very weak. Was taking 15 minutes from empty to fill its 200L receiver to 10Bar, and once warm would hover around 9bar for ages and make little headway.

Doesn't pull very good vacuum either so I suspect valve problems on that. I might end up selling it once I repair my 56cfm compressor and don't want to sell a pup to someone.

 

[gasket999]

I'll let you know how I get on with Clarke - I sent them an email last night describing all the part I needed. They open on Monday morning. I've had mixed experience with their telephone team - so if I didn't get anywhere with the email I'll follow up with a call.

AndyStobbs - as silly as it sounds I didn't even think of going to a MM shop - I assumed they wouldn't know anything about non-catalog/service parts. Did they have access to parts catalogues or anything like that?

RTB - a new one would be a preference but this one came out of the blue at a very low price (less than half the VAT-Free price of a new one) - so that gives me a decent budget for parts while keeping it as a bargain. Aside from the air filter being missing - the compressor works perfectly. The rebuild parts are for peace of mind.

 

[AndyStobbs]

Not in the shop, though I think I called them first and they gave me a number for the spares department.

 

[Wallace]

I contacted the Clarke Parts Department about the top end gaskets, think it was around £26 off the top of my head, didn't order them just made replacements from good quality gasket material. If the machine is stamped 2014 and running up to pressure ok I would change the oil, fit a filter and run it, mine still has hone marks on the bores after 15 years so they are not a highly stressed machine. Is there any sign of paint looking down the inlet? That would be my only concern given what you describe regards the paint and I would be interested in inspecting the valve plates, again mine just needed a clean and were fine. I have an air filter assembly off a VW Polo to go on mine in an attempt to reduce the induction noise of the standard air filter when get a chance.

 

[gasket999]

Wallace - thank you very much. Just had a look this morning and after removing the remaining part of the air filter housing (only the element and screw on lid is missing), there is indeed a bit of paint inside the inlet chamber of the head - not a lot, but enough to mean the head has to come off. However, other than clumsy use and perhaps never having an oil change I don't think its been used all that much - so I'd be keen to inspect the bores as you did. If no paint has reached the cylinders then I'd be tempted just to inspect and clean the valve plates and replace the head.

Past home made gaskets have been on cars in brown paper but may buy a pack of generic material - any suggestions?

Found plenty of generic air filter housings (these screw into the pump and there are a lot of similar ones on Amazon - this one is a close match)

Home made gaskets and a new filter should come in at about £15. Plus oil.

However, the manual does consider piston rings, main and big end bearings as being consumables so if clarke come back with a reasonable price then I may do the lot in one go.

 

[Wallace]

I bought a couple of sheets of Klingersil C4324 gastet material off Ebay and knocked up new gaskets, the originals had failed through age and many heat cycles. Despite the oil being black if there was plenty in there it's doubtful there will be much to gain from rings and bearings, you'll be getting near the price of a new machine on a Vat free day! Mine is one of the best bits of kit I have bought from Machine Mart.

 

[gasket999]

Hahahahahah! (he says manically)

Its an utter, utter pup.

Just been in the garage and whipped the head off - one side of the valve plate (the inlet side) caked in chalky red paint (about 1/4in thick).

So he taps the valve plate off and sees the pistons from a particularly bad 2.25 diesel land rover - or thats what i looks like.

The pistons are black.

So - paint has been sucked into the air intake - through the valves and into the bores and the heat from the pump has melted and burned it onto the top of the pistons. That means poor lubrication and heat which may well have killed the bearings.

…it gets worse…

Took the plastic cover off the top of the motor, which was cracked and broken (the bit holding the capacitors) and there's evidence of melted wires (they'd been trying to run it from a 13a plug and it kept tripping the fuse - doubt this could cause anything to melt as the fuse would protect the wiring - so god knows what's cause this).

So it was probably worth half what I paid for it in spare parts. I should have left it or bought a new one on Vat Free day (which was only last weekend).


Phew…. deep breath.

On the upside:

The bloody thing still works! That's is perversely impressive, plus:

1) its already in the garage and I've been craving a new project
2) its ridiculously simple to work on
3) there doesn't seem to be any damage to the bores or any of the internals at all.
4) the paint comes off relatively easily - even the burnt bits on top of the pistons.
5) aside from the cost of the bearings, the cost of rebuilding it is minimal - gasket material, white spirit and elbow grease.
6) if I try and rebuild it and fail, I'll have learned a lot about compressors (which were a bit of an unknown to me).

I can't sell it in good faith, so ladies and gentlemen… August bank holiday will bring to Mig-Welding.co.uk the world's first (and utterly uneconomical) Clarke compressor restoration thread.

I'll photograph and write up the rebuild - hopefully some generic parts can be identified to help others in the future.

Disclaimer: yes I could sell it as spares and chalk this up to experience. Yes I could sell the pump for spares and buy a new pump from Machine Mart. I know, I'm clearly nuts.

 

[gasket999]

Oh - I think the pump is a CC35.

I could really do with a set of drawings/manual/parts list for this if anyone knows of one.

 

[rtbcomp]

I'd do the same in your position - nothing to lose and a lot to learn. Looking forward to the thread.

Take loads of photos and you shouldn't need drawings. You can buy bearings and oil-seals by size, you can make gaskets - only the pistons may present a problem

The over-heating in the plastic box could be a result of silver paper being wrapped around the fuse in the mains plug.

 

[gasket999]

Thanks - I'll be sure to post it here.

Ideal would be to get the basic rebuild parts in stock before I start - big end bearings, main (crank) bearings and piston rings. Buy it seems sensible to inspect these first.

The gaskets seem to be made of metal - don't think they're copper. But think that 1.5mm Kingersill (as suggested above) would be a good alternative.

I can't find a replacement plastic box for the top of the motor (its chinese - found the manufacturer - Zhengli Motors, but they don't seem to sell spares) - so may replace it with a plastic 'project' box from maplins. or repair the old one somehow.

 

[gasket999]

I'm sure a few people have this compressor - if so could they shout up so that I have some go-to people for photos - particularly detailed pics of the inside of the capacitor box? Many thanks.

Oh and I think the pistons should be OK - the tops seem to clean up oK and once I have them out I'll get them shiny again (without removing any material I hope)

 

[rtbcomp]

 

[Wallace]

Perhaps it was running and vibrated the paint off the shelf onto the air filter! Should be a good thread for future reference.

 

[gasket999]

Thanks RTB - mine looks completely different though… suspect a different motor. Wallace - I suspect the same thing re: vibration.

Right!!! I was bored so started already. What a pleasant thing it is to work on… genuinely its really old fashioned engineering and looks just like the parts I'm used to.

Have taken some photos already - what's the best way to upload them - just s attachments or does the forum recommend a photo site?

 

[rtbcomp]

Drag & drop photos into the "Post Reply" box. A list of photos will appear below the box. The best thing would be to click the "Add all as Thumbnails" box.

Please don't use a photo hosting site - photos have a habit of disappearing from these.

 

[gasket999]

Ok… here we go.

So here's the compressor as bought:

View media item 8601View media item 8600View media item 8599View media item 8598
You can see the paint has gone everywhere

 

[gasket999]

Hope these photos are working…

So head removed - 6 bolts and loosen the coupling from the bottom of the after cooler then you're looking at the valve plate - you can see it is caked in the red paint







Quick tap with a hammer and a brass drift and the valve plate comes off



Please note that before I took the photo I had already removed the bulk of the black burned paint and and started to wipe with white spirit. As I thought I'd be leaving it for a while I squirted WD40 over everything - thats the liquid you can see. The tops of the pistons were absolutely black with burned caked on paint