Cause of pump damage?

BeezFun · Jan 26, 2022

hayden said:
Anyone have any suggestions on how to best clean the tank out? I'm thinking that I need to get some solvent in there to clean out the oil, then I can probably get a vacuum hose in there at least on the side where the filter mounts, and maybe blast some compressed air in the other side with hopes of stirring things up enough so it ultimately gets sucked out by the vacuum.

Any other ideas?

I just went through a similar problem flushing out debris after I trashed a part internal to the transmission. I bought a gallon can of WD40 and put it in a spray bottle like for cleaning windows and used that to wash and flush everything to the bottom where I could drain it or wipe it out on the side of the case I had opened up. I didn't feel good using any kind of solvent because it takes the oil film off things like bearings. Sounds like your situation is a little harder to get the fluid out, maybe use a vacuum oil change hose or a turkey baster with a piece of tubing on the end to reach those hard to get at spots. A magnet might also help to get out little pieces.

You could send some of that hydraulic fluid into Blackstone labs (if you still have it), they will tell you what kind of metal contamination is in it. Might help diagnose the original problem.

dstig1 · Jan 26, 2022

I would caution you NOT to use a vacuum with any petrochemical product as that has BOOM written all over it... The vapors will get into the motor and since those are typically open universal type, there is a constant spark generated in the open. Thus BOOM ...

You can try a magnet to help but much of the debris is going to be copper and aluminum, so that may have limited effectiveness, but can't hurt.

Otherwise your plan of flushing is probably best unless you can bring the tank to someone who can steam clean it, perhaps.

Hay Dude · Jan 26, 2022

Flush it. Some use cheaper brand oil.

rScotty · Jan 26, 2022

Well, the good news is that is what one would expect if we've got the failure mechanism right.

I don't suppose that there is any way to take the tank off fort cleaning or replacement? Probably not or you would have mentioned it.. and I've no other idea on how to clean it.

Which means it will come down to clean as good as can do and then rely on filtration. When looking for insights I like the tech articles that Al Smiley writes for "Machinery Lubrication. There was one on filtration that I remember being especially good.
And you might want to contact him to see if he has any tricks for cleaning tanks. It might be a common enough problem for industry for there to be some special techniques.

Al Smiley

Machinery Lubrication offers information about lubricants, lubrication, hydraulics and oil analysis for industrial maintenance and reliability professionals

www.machinerylubrication.com

rScotty.

hayden · Jan 26, 2022

dstig1 said:
I would caution you NOT to use a vacuum with any petrochemical product as that has BOOM written all over it... The vapors will get into the motor and since those are typically open universal type, there is a constant spark generated in the open. Thus BOOM ...

You can try a magnet to help but much of the debris is going to be copper and aluminum, so that may have limited effectiveness, but can't hurt.

Otherwise your plan of flushing is probably best unless you can bring the tank to someone who can steam clean it, perhaps.

Good point, thanks.

The debris is all copper and AL, so a magnet won't help.

rScotty said:
Well, the good news is that is what one would expect if we've got the failure mechanism right.

I don't suppose that there is any way to take the tank off fort cleaning or replacement? Probably not or you would have mentioned it.. and I've no other idea on how to clean it.

Which means it will come down to clean as good as can do and then rely on filtration. When looking for insights I like the tech articles that Al Smiley writes for "Machinery Lubrication. There was one on filtration that I remember being especially good.
And you might want to contact him to see if he has any tricks for cleaning tanks. It might be a common enough problem for industry for there to be some special techniques.

Al Smiley

Machinery Lubrication offers information about lubricants, lubrication, hydraulics and oil analysis for industrial maintenance and reliability professionals

www.machinerylubrication.com

rScotty.

I'll take a look at that.

The problem as I see it is that the particles will sink in whatever cleaning fluid I use, so "flushing" it I don't think will leave things much better than they are now. Plus the drain ports are all elevated a bit off the bottom, even if only a little bit, so I think debris will just collect around the drain without actually draining out.

So I think I need to somehow de-grease (de-oil) the bottom of the tank so that the debris isn't sticking to teh bottom. then I can vacuum it out. But I don't think it will vacuum out until I de-grease it so it's not all sticking to the bottom.

I'm now thinking that just soap and water might work best, dry it out, then vacuum.

hayden · Jan 28, 2022

Progress is being made. I got the new pump, confirmed it's a correct match for the old one, and installed it without issue.

I also got the tank cleaned out. There was a pretty consistent film of crud on the bottom of the tank. That surprised me, and I think further suggests that this power pack was used for something else. Maybe the accumulation is oil breakdown from overheating? I don't know. But diesel tanks I have seen after several years have been spotless compared to this tank.

I ultimately just poured about 1/2 liter of Simple Green into the tank, sloshed it around for a while, then reached in with towels on a long parts grabber and mopped away at the sludge. The whole thing came pretty clean, I could see flecks of copper and AL in the crud that came out on the towels, and I can't see any more of them in the tank now. I towel-dried the inside of the tank and it's air drying over night. So I think that problem is solved.

I also got a couple of new hoses to complete the cooler installation, some fittings, and a new filter. So I should be able to button the power pack back up after the weekend and run some oil through to prime and flush the system.