I just wanted to let everyone know that I just had my Autoride compressor fail on my 2004 Hoe. It has 105,000 miles on it. Instead of buying a new compressor/ solenoid assembly for a price ranging from $185 and up of which I have to install, I decided to rebuild the one I had.
The motor had slight aluminum oxidation inside its housing. The compressor had significant oxidation built up and the solenoid had slight oxidation.
The reason for the pump failure, I believe, was the compressor built up too much oxidation and literally pinched the piston in its cylinder causing it to be too tight to move. This caused the solenoid to remain energized causing a wire in the winding to burn through.
The piston was removed cleaned and reinstalled, and when power was applied with a battery charger, the compressor ran like a scalded dog.
The solenoid was disassembled by removing the 2 top screws, the blue tape removed from around the solenoid to the point that the electrical contact for the winding was exposed and it was their that I found the burned wire. I resoldered the wire and tested it with the battery charger and got it to click. I held the connection against the winding with a nylon tie then applied a generous coating of liquid electrical tape and let it dry overnight.
I reassembled the solenoid, put the pump back in it holding frame and remounted it in the tahoe. It ran perfectly and is still running perfectly 2 weeks later.
I wrote this just to let people know that just because something breaks, doesn't mean you have to spend big bucks buying new or used for that matter. It may be just a situation where it needs a good cleaning. Anyway for what its worth, I hope this helps somebody.
And for a laugh, the 3 bolts holding the compressor in the frame and the 4 bolts holding the compressor housing together all snapped off. I drilled and was able to get all the bolts out without too much damage. This was the most annoying and time consuming part of this project. I should have recognized this sooner and applied penetrating oil for maybe several days, but I was too anxious to get the compressor back in my Tahoe.
The motor had slight aluminum oxidation inside its housing. The compressor had significant oxidation built up and the solenoid had slight oxidation.
The reason for the pump failure, I believe, was the compressor built up too much oxidation and literally pinched the piston in its cylinder causing it to be too tight to move. This caused the solenoid to remain energized causing a wire in the winding to burn through.
The piston was removed cleaned and reinstalled, and when power was applied with a battery charger, the compressor ran like a scalded dog.
The solenoid was disassembled by removing the 2 top screws, the blue tape removed from around the solenoid to the point that the electrical contact for the winding was exposed and it was their that I found the burned wire. I resoldered the wire and tested it with the battery charger and got it to click. I held the connection against the winding with a nylon tie then applied a generous coating of liquid electrical tape and let it dry overnight.
I reassembled the solenoid, put the pump back in it holding frame and remounted it in the tahoe. It ran perfectly and is still running perfectly 2 weeks later.
I wrote this just to let people know that just because something breaks, doesn't mean you have to spend big bucks buying new or used for that matter. It may be just a situation where it needs a good cleaning. Anyway for what its worth, I hope this helps somebody.
And for a laugh, the 3 bolts holding the compressor in the frame and the 4 bolts holding the compressor housing together all snapped off. I drilled and was able to get all the bolts out without too much damage. This was the most annoying and time consuming part of this project. I should have recognized this sooner and applied penetrating oil for maybe several days, but I was too anxious to get the compressor back in my Tahoe.
