I won one of these compressors at an online auction from a farm being sold. It has a separate vertical tank and is a stand alone cabinet. It was working at hammer fall as the tank was full of compressed air and indeed a lot of water. From the look of it it has not had a lot of love and attention paid to it. Anyway I decided to clean it up and check and paint where required. Upon taking the cover off the motor I found a mess in there. The oil was thickish and although there is a lot of oil mixed up with the dust of the cabinet and all over the engine and components I do not think it is engine oil. Do the two black capacitors have oil in them I wonder? The third capacitor in the lid looks ok. As well as the oil the brown lead from the silver capacitor was adrift from its luck and the earth cable from the mains input was loose as the bolts holding the whole electric casing to the motor were either loose or had fell out due to, I assume, vibration over time. There were no spring washers fitted so no wonder. The compressor is as title and is a model 5450 type MA 500.
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brightspark
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a lot of the older capacitors were oil filled some with pcb 
watch out for the health and safety police jumping on the thread 
check the size and get a replacement on the leaky one
watch out for the health and safety police jumping on the thread check the size and get a replacement on the leaky oneDifficult to decide which one, if any, are leaking. Obviously I will change both anyway. Their casings are plastic whilst the big one on the cover is aluminium. Apparently the compressor started and ran ok so how if the capacitor/s are leaking/not working. And why/what do the three of them do?
It seems I was a bit premature stating that the capacitor in the lid was ok as it turns out it wasn't! It was fastened in the lid with two cable ties and when I removed them I found a hole in the casing. So I assume that this is the one that's leaked the gungy sticky oil(pcb) and not the plastic ones.
On to the air part now. I assume that the large black cylindrical filter looking item is some sort of water extractor as at the bottom there is a attachment point where a tube runs to the cabinet and through to a drain tap. I have tried to remove either one of the end caps of this but they are so tight I have to admit defeat. What exactly would be in that tube to remove the water? Also at the cooling radiator there is a valve operated electrically. Anybody any ideas what it is for and how it works. I took the electric solenoid part off and there was just the spindle with no keyway or the like. So how does it move the valve? The other end of that valve is connected to the air intake by a rubber hose.
On to the air part now. I assume that the large black cylindrical filter looking item is some sort of water extractor as at the bottom there is a attachment point where a tube runs to the cabinet and through to a drain tap. I have tried to remove either one of the end caps of this but they are so tight I have to admit defeat. What exactly would be in that tube to remove the water? Also at the cooling radiator there is a valve operated electrically. Anybody any ideas what it is for and how it works. I took the electric solenoid part off and there was just the spindle with no keyway or the like. So how does it move the valve? The other end of that valve is connected to the air intake by a rubber hose.
