Brad,
There are a several reasons I can think of that would cause the oil to
blow out of the breather. If the problem mainly occurs when the lift is
at its highest, you may not have enough oil in the tank. Generally the
oil return line comes in somewhere below the oil level to keep it from
spraying around. If you have ever turned on a jacuzzi tub jets before
the water level is above the jets you will know what I mean!
If there is air being pushed into the system by a bad pump shaft seal
you may be having trouble with the air bubbles causing the excess
agitation in the tank.
If these aren't the case, you should be able to extend the breather cap
into a barf tank. A barf tank us nothing more than can that has a
diameter several times that of the pipe that is having the problem The
pipe with the problem comes in the bottom, and rises a bit into the
tank. There is an additional hole in the bottom of the tank with a line
that goes back into the reservoir to return the extra oil. The breather
is then put on top of the barf tank with a baffle under it to keep the
oil from blowing directly out the breather. This type of tank was used
on some of the 1950's and earlier cars on the crankcase breather. I also
seem to remember seeing them in speed shop catalogs. Your application
probably needs a larger capacity than the set ups found on cars though.
As for how much oil to put in the tank, I would think that with the
lift down (oil level highest) I would fill the tank to be almost full.
Peace,
Pat
Thusly spake Brad Kahler:
> I think I know the answer to this but I'm going to ask anyway.
>
> I recently installed a 4-post lift that I bought from our neighbor. Its
> an older unit that was used in a muffler shop for years. Anyway, the
> hydraulic reservoir sits horizontal to the big lift cylinder and if the
> lift is raised up to a reasonable working height, when lowering any
> faster than a real slow crawl hydraulic fluid spews out of the breather
> cap.
>
> All of the markings on the hydraulic unit are missing so I can't
> identify a manufacturer and the lift vendor has not been of any help
> (they been through 3 buyouts since the lift was made).
>
> What I'm curious about is how do you determine just how much oil should
> be in the reservoir? My thought is if there is enough oil in the
> reservoir for the lift to make it all the way to the top without
> cavitating then that should be all the fluid you would need.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> roadsters@hornesystemstx.com
>
> Shop-talk mailing list
>
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shop-talk
>
>
>
--
Pat Horne, Owner, Horne Systems
(512) 797-7501 Voice 5026 FM 2001
Pat@HorneSystemsTx.com Lockhart, TX 78644-4443
www.hornesystemstx.com
-- We support Habitat for Humanity - a hand UP, not a hand OUT --
_______________________________________________
Shop-talk mailing list
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shop-talk
|