How to replace a vacuum breaker on a toilet

If you are like me you have used industrial/commercial type toilets hundreds or thousands of times without giving a second thought about how they work. I have now had some experience working on them, and while  I am still no expert, I do have the knowledge to work on them.

Vacuum breakers in industrial/commercial type flush valves are what seem to wear out the most in my experience. Some signs of a warn out vacuum breaker are:

• Water leaking from the top of the pipe where it joins the bottom of the flush valve
• Flushes taking too long or not stopping.
• Having to hold the handle down for the flush to complete.
• Unusually loud flushes.

The first thing to do is to shut off water. remove the cap.

Use a flat head screw driver to turn the water off. Turn clockwise.

Loosen the union. Use an adjustable wrench instead of this kind.

Or you can use a clothe to keep from scratching the fixture.

Unscrew the lower union. and remove the flush assembly.

Here are the three pieces of the new vacuum breaker.

Vacuum breaker shown installed. Makre sure to clean the pipe before putting the vacuum breaker in place.

Replace the flush valve and tighten the unions, making sure they are nice and tight. If they are not tight or the pipe is dirty that could cause the pipe to leak, or the toilet to keep flushing. After the joints are tight turn the water back on and check for leaks. I put some teflon tape on this one, because it would not stop leaking without it.

Technotrans beta.c

I was called into look at the Technotrans beta.c unit that cools water for our Manroland sheet fed press. I was told that the water temps were too high and that they had reset the high pressure switch on the compressor, but were not sure if it had helped. I went outside to make sure that the condenser fan was working like it should, which it was. The compressor was cycling on and off over, maybe a 30-40 min period (not short cycling). I put the refrigeration gauges on and checked the pressure. The pressure was well below the limit of the high pressure cutoff switch.

Time to call the tech.
I call Technotrans and explain the problem. The tech wants the serial number so as I am looking for it, opening doors, I see another compressor. He says, yes the smaller compressor on the left is the one that cools the chill water. I pushed the red reset button, and what do you know, it comes on and starts cooling the water. The tech tells me that I should check the pressure  on this one as well. If the pressure is in the 250-270 range then there is an oriface that needs to be cleaned. I measured the pressure and it was in the 200 psi range which is good.

This is the compressor that was tripped, and the on that controls the chill water

To the left of the brass 90 degree elbow is the orafice that would have needed cleaning.

So, call that tech, it is what they are there for. I wanted to get all the information about the problem before calling, but I was getting information about the wrong compressor.

new blog

I have started a new blog at mynewfixation.blogspot.com . This will be a place where I post about my latest fixation, usually tech related.

Calibrating a pneumatic thermostat

Pneumatic thermostat

Tools needed: thermometer, Allen wrench tool, and needle pressure 

gauge

Use the Allen wrench tool to remove the cover. Turn clockwise to  turn the screw into the  base allowing the cover to slip over the head of the screw.

Adjust the temperature so that the edge of the black dial is lined up with the measured temperature. This one is set  just below 76 degrees.

Push pressure gauge into the hole as shown. Insert Allen tool into adjustment screw. Adjust until the gauge reads 9 psi. Be careful, adjust slowly, it is also sensitive to the heat from your hand.

You can also adjust the temperature reading on the front display, so that it will better reflect                                                   the actual temperature of the room.

Repair Becker vacuum pump

Repair a Becker DVT 3.140 vacuum pump bearing.

Vaccum pump number 4 was tripping the breaker. The pump was hot to the touch and when it was turned back on there was a loud noise comming from it. My first thought was that it had broken vanes.
I found vanes online, while waiting for it to cool off.The the part number is 90133400 and the DVT3.140 requires 7 and the dimensions are 240 x 43 x 4.0 I found them at this site http://cfpwarehouse.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/vane_chart_becker.html

We took the cover off. And the vanes were fine.
We did find a piece of epoxy inside the fan. It looked like was used to keep the fin tubes in place.

We took the other end off to check the bearing. It was not getting any grease and was really bad.
The grease line from the zerk to the bearing went the whole length of the pump so we shortened it. Hoping that the grease wouldn’t have a chance to heat up and cook inside the line.

vane end of pump, with cover and bearings removed.

Broken epoxy that was stuck in the fan.

Pump with all covers removed. The grease zerk on the other end of the pump had a grease tube connecting it to the bearing on the close end of the pump.

New location, and shorter grease tube.

Motor side of pump with bearing covers and motor mount removed.

We replaced both bearings on each end. skf 3206a/c3 and nu 206ecp/c3

First Post

I am not really sure where I should start. I am thinking that this blog will start off as a place for me to keep track of work projects. I work as a maintenance technician on a lot of different machines and equipment. In the past I would figure out what was wrong with a piece of equipment and get it all fixed up. Then 6 months or a year go by and the same problem comes up again, and although it seems familiar I would not remember what I did to fix it the last time. So I started keeping a written record of what problems I was encountering and what it took to fix them, phone numbers of service techs, web sites with information about the product, manuals and schematics. I also started taking pictures of the machines, especially if they were difficult to take apart or put back together. Will this be of any value to anybody besides me? I hope to find out.

I have a few other ideas for this blog. I like taking apart and fixing stuff, thus the title of the blog "The Tinkerist". As I find broken stuff to fix I will take pictures of the process and explain how I fixed it. The computer that I am typing this on is completely salvaged from the scrap heap except for the wifi adapter.