i've had an old kestrel 2hp compressor for years and a cheap air wrench but it never was able to undo wheel nuts which was it's main purpose for me.
i bought a metabo wrench last year but i was dissappointed when that wouldn't touch the wheel nuts either.
i got a 3hp abac silenced compressor and was pretty confident that that would solve the problem but it was still no good on wheels so i was getting frustrated.
i was on the verge of upgrading all air lines and couplers etc to 3/8 when i thought i would take the cabinet off the compressor and have a look inside where i found the internal pipework from tank to regulator and from there to the output was all 8mm plastic with, i guess, a bore of 6mm or less. this didn't look great but then the bore of all the 1/4 fittings is at most 6mm anyway but this looked like it might explain it so i was thinking of changing all the fitting and pipes and maybe my airlines but i thought i'd have a look at the regulator first.
it has 3 ports, a 1/4" input, a 1/4" output and an 1/8" output which i guess is where the guage would be connected only it wasn't: the guage was connected to the 1/4 outlet and the air flow was connected via a reducer to the 1/8 port. swapped them around, gave it a whirl and bingo wheel nuts flying off!
can't believe they made that mistake in the factory. it wasn't new when i got it but i can't think of any reason the previous owner would have messed with it like that. having said that i'm just happy that it's doing what it should do now and it didn't cost me a fortune in new hoses and couplers etc. to find out that wouldn't have solved it anyway.
the compressor is a really good quality piece of kit generally.
i bought a metabo wrench last year but i was dissappointed when that wouldn't touch the wheel nuts either.
i got a 3hp abac silenced compressor and was pretty confident that that would solve the problem but it was still no good on wheels so i was getting frustrated.
i was on the verge of upgrading all air lines and couplers etc to 3/8 when i thought i would take the cabinet off the compressor and have a look inside where i found the internal pipework from tank to regulator and from there to the output was all 8mm plastic with, i guess, a bore of 6mm or less. this didn't look great but then the bore of all the 1/4 fittings is at most 6mm anyway but this looked like it might explain it so i was thinking of changing all the fitting and pipes and maybe my airlines but i thought i'd have a look at the regulator first.
it has 3 ports, a 1/4" input, a 1/4" output and an 1/8" output which i guess is where the guage would be connected only it wasn't: the guage was connected to the 1/4 outlet and the air flow was connected via a reducer to the 1/8 port. swapped them around, gave it a whirl and bingo wheel nuts flying off!
can't believe they made that mistake in the factory. it wasn't new when i got it but i can't think of any reason the previous owner would have messed with it like that. having said that i'm just happy that it's doing what it should do now and it didn't cost me a fortune in new hoses and couplers etc. to find out that wouldn't have solved it anyway.
the compressor is a really good quality piece of kit generally.
