Hello All. Ive noticed the past few days my compressor has been running like pure poop. :eek::eek: By that I mean, its been taking forever to fill, it doesn’t sound strong anymore (almost like it’s not getting enough voltage) (by the way I have a brand new batt… maybe a month old)
But anyway, it takes forever to fill, running weak, and once it does fill, it takes about 3 mins and its already running again because I have a major leak some where. I have checked all my fittings and nothing is leaking. I am thinking the one way valve is shot, but I dont know for sure. The other day I went to disconnect the fuse to the compressor. I got it ran to my ignition so the compressor only runs when the key is turned. When I went to pull the fuse it was stuck inside the casing. I noticed the casing was swelled. I finally got the fuse out, and only half the fuse came out. The other half was stuck and like welded in side the casing. I looked inside the casing and it was all black and melted. I have a 30 fuse in there. Which horn blasters gives a 35.
So I went and hooked the compressor up straight to the battery today for a trial to see if it runs any better without a burnt up fuse. It does not, its still runs like crap.
I did run the intake hose into the cab of my truck which is about a 4-5 foot piece of hose. I dont know if this is suffocating the compressor and its pulling to hard and thats why its not working correctly or what. I did notice the compressor start to get weaker and weaker after running that hose line, but it wasnt instantly.
I plan on re doing my whole setup. I’m going to move the tanks to under my tool box so I can work on them easier. I’m probably going to move the compressor there as well.
I guess my question is, why did the fuse do what it is, and why is the compressor running so poorly… Do they go bad over time?
I have a single viar 444c and the Shocker horn blasters kit. I am running the stock 2 gal tank, and an addition 3 gal tank so a total of 5 gal.
To determine the correct wiring, we need the following info:
How many amps is the compressor rated for at full load?
What size wire are you using?
What is the distance from the battery to the compressor including all fuses, solenoids, relays, etc? This should be measured as a total round-trip distance, both to and from.
Is your ground wire home-run back to the battery, or is it connected to the frame?
Based on the answers above, we should be able to determine whether your wire is too small, your fuse too large, your ground is insufficient, or whatever. From your picture, I would wonder whether the legs of the fuse shorted together and melted the thing, instead of blowing the fuse - possibly because of excessive heat from the engine bay.
Another possibility along the lines of rjk’s thinking is as follows regarding the fuse holder damage:
It’s possible that the fuse holder damage was caused by a liquid getting into the fuse holder and conducting electricity across and within the fuse’s plastic body – which would melt the fuse. This is common when cheap fuse holders with dust caps are used instead of more expensive environmentally sealed ones – in places exposed to even mild amounts of road spray, brine, ice/snow melt, rainwater run-off, etc. It’s even more common in areas where salt/brine are used since salt water is a much better conductor than pure water. (As a reminder: dust caps may cover the fuse – but they DO NOT reliably keep liquids away from the fuse unless they are environmentally sealed.)
Thus, you should ask yourself:
Is the fuse holder exposed to liquids like brine, rainwater, roadwash/spray, etc., and, if so, is the fuse holder an environmentally sealed fuse holder?
Note:
This doesn’t address the compressor issue, nor is it an attempt to do so.
Or it could have been the reverse … the fuse could have shorted and taken the fuse holder with it. How? Well, unfortunately I’ve learned from personal experience that it’s possible for fuse holder damage to occur when a liquid gets into a fuse holder and conducts electricity across and within a fuse’s plastic body instead of along the metal path provided by the fuse. This tends to overheat and melt the fuse, possibly damaging the holder, as well. It doesn’t necessarily happen all at once, it can happen incrementally (i.e. it could melt a little one day, then a little more the next day, etc – and eventually fail … all the while destroying not only the fuse, but what contains it.)
I’ve also learned (again due to personal experience) that the common cause for this is use of cheap fuse holders with dust caps instead of more expensive environmentally sealed ones – in places exposed to even mild amounts of road spray, brine, ice/snow melt, rainwater, etc. It’s yet again more common in those areas where salt/brine are used on roads since salt water is a much better conductor than pure water.
Thus, I encourage you to ask yourself:
Is your fuse holder exposed to liquids (in any amount, no matter how small) like brine, rainwater, roadwash/spray, etc., and, if so, is the fuse holder an environmentally sealed fuse holder?
Since I don’t know your familiarity level with fuse holders, this is what an environmentally sealed fuse holder looks like (note the flexible orange, tiered silicon ring around the black plastic that holds the fuse in the image found at this link): http://www.waytekwire.com/item/46033/SEALED-FUSE-HOLDER-ASSEMBLY/
Note:
This doesn’t address the compressor issue, nor is it an attempt to do so.
You could try removing the Peice of airline running from your compressor to your filter and running your compressor to confirm or eliminate the possibility of a restriction in that portion of your system. You did say that you ran a direct wire to the battery, so while you want to replace that burnt fuse holder, you have determined that it is not the cause of your issues. When you did hook your battery directly to the compressor did you hook up power and ground directly, bad grounds can cause a lot of issues.
Normally this kind of Fuse heat damage is caused by loose or insufficiently connected fuse.
I always fit the fuse into the holder and then very very gently give the outside of the holder a cheeky gentle squeeze so that the female spade connectors crimp up tighter onto the legs of a fuse & makes a better contact.
As for your compressor running a bit pants & losing pressure, from what you have said I would certainly be addressing the check valve! If your have trouble getting up to pressure, then the valve sounds like it is letting the air back into the compressor under pressure & then after it eventually gets to pressure, it is simply leaking back into the compressor. They are relatively cheap to replace, only costing a couple of quid!
