sphere testing rig

Abraxas said:
perhaps you could try a GS pump(push-me-pull-me movement), our regasser's sphere testing device uses one combined with a lever and it doesn't take much time or effort to pump it. Well, he did complain about those huge CX break rear spheres but that's not my problem (I don't have a cx break) so when I'm building one I'll do it this way ( and I also have only GS pumps so the choice is very simple :) )
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Yeah I might try making a brake fluid tester with a single cylinder pump. It would be slow going though.... 1 turn of a 7cylinder pump would probably be 1/2dozen pumps of a single cylinder pump.

Roger runs a standard LHM pump on his brake fluid car, so there mustn't be many seals in the pump itself that cause issues (though I imagine the pump shells seal would deteriate, I've never had a pump apart, but there would need to be an 'O'ring seal there.

seeya,
Shane L.
 
GreenBlood said:
Very general answer, going rate to re-gas approx $35.00 should last 2 years...
Cheers
Chris
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Hadn't you better expand on this a bit Chris?
Sounds like Stalled is new to the brand so he's going to think that the spheres are consumables.
 
UFO,

I've just had a thought, something that will be a lot simpler than a washing machine motor. I have one of those really cheap hammer drills (about 75bux). They have a geared reduction and masses of torque. I'll try tonight but have no doubt it'll effortlessly spin the pump.

Similar to this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20776&item=4381950983&rd=1

A drill would be much easier to cart around to club days than a bull blown motor.

seeya,
Shane L.
 
WLB said:
Hadn't you better expand on this a bit Chris?
Sounds like Stalled is new to the brand so he's going to think that the spheres are consumables.
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Warwick, Stalled is a long standing member - at this stage I don't believe he has a drivers license or a car. He has really done his homework though, and when he does venture out to buy himself his first car it will have been very well researched = many, many questions regardings all the French marques.

...but to clarify, spheres on cars post D model '74 could be viewed as consumable - they can be regassed many times but at some point will need replaceing, life-span would be very dependant on how they have been treated, rears tend to last longer than fronts (exposure to heat under bonnet) 10 years could be considered average (?). D model spheres can be pulled apart and diaphrams can be replaced effectively these will last the lifetime of the vehicle - again regassing at approx 2 year intervals.

The C5, well that's another story, we know that no maintainance should be required inside 200,000k. What we don't yet know is what actually will be required at this point or the associated costs.....

Howzat....

Cheers
Chris
 
Excellent, and apologies to Stalled.
It was just that to the unfamiliar, it might have appeared that Citroen suspension was troublesome.
 
DoubleChevron said:
UFO,

I've just had a thought, something that will be a lot simpler than a washing machine motor. I have one of those really cheap hammer drills (about 75bux). They have a geared reduction and masses of torque. I'll try tonight but have no doubt it'll effortlessly spin the pump.

Similar to this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20776&item=4381950983&rd=1

A drill would be much easier to cart around to club days than a bull blown motor.

seeya,
Shane L.
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Shane. The rest of this message is in larger text to compensate for your obvious old age now :tongue:

Find an opto and get your eyes tested mate:rolleyes: . My orginal statement was

I have a test rig that uses a seven piston pump

It was entirely effortless as someone else built it years ago and as he no longer uses it he gave it to me! :banana:

The only problem I find with it is that its size and weight can preclude easy movement. However "one day" I might redesign it... (yeah right, project number 358543!):mallet:

Mind you, your idea is good. I do know that people have used gutsy drills to drive pumps to lift cars.

Another advantage of this rig I have that is if you use a long V belt, you can sit the rig on the wing of a D (with padding of course) and use the geared output from the washing machine gearbox to drive the pump in a dead car and lift it. Takes a little while due to the slow output speed but works really well!
 
UFO said:
Another advantage of this rig I have that is if you use a long V belt, you can sit the rig on the wing of a D (with padding of course) and use the geared output from the washing machine gearbox to drive the pump in a dead car and lift it. Takes a little while due to the slow output speed but works really well!
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Hang on, I better get this right. So you have a sphere pressure tester. It uses a washing machine motor with a reduction box...... :mallet: :mallet: :whip:

Size be buggered, getcha self a DS safari (it should fit in the back) and 10KVA generator on a trailer and take it along to club meets.... I'm sure poeple will be mightily impressed :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

seeya,
Shane L.
 
DoubleChevron said:
Hang on, I better get this right. So you have a sphere pressure tester. It uses a washing machine motor with a reduction box...... :mallet: :mallet: :whip:

Size be buggered, getcha self a DS safari (it should fit in the back) and 10KVA generator on a trailer and take it along to club meets.... I'm sure poeple will be mightily impressed :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

seeya,
Shane L.
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It fits in a plastic crate and in the boot of the XM without the parcel shelf. Our tech days are always at someone's place, so 240v is not a problem.

Oh, and people are generally impressed. :headbang:

Now on the question of the Safari - yes please... Should have bought Gerry's DS23 BVH all those years ago.:mad:
 
Hi Craig,

that drill works **brilliantly** effortlessly spins the pump upto regulator cutout in about 15seconds.

Now I have tested it a couple of times, the pressure appears to shoot straight upto 2000psi. Just how do you use these testers :confused: :confused: I'm thinking possibly the sphere I've been using for testing is flat (not totally dead, but really really flat) so doesn't give a reading.

I've got the lot ready to mount on a small board that fits inside a small ammo box from the local Dispenary store. So compact(ish) but you need to take a drill with you (or get really fit with spanner work:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: ).

seeya,
Shane L.
 
My Sphere Testing Rig.

Thought I'd chime in with a piccie of the rig I cobbled together some 10 years ago now. I only had CX bits available at the time, so I used those.

Mine consists of a pump with a hand crank, delivering the line pressure to the sphere and the gauge in parallel. There's a tap to bypass this pressure back to the tank, and the tank (a one litre tin). The sphere screws into what I recall was the mounting for a second accumulator in the CX that I wrecked. I had the gauge made at Floyd's Instruments here in Melbourne. It cost me about $20 as I recall, and I recently took it back to them for checking. They re-calibrated and cleaned it, all for no charge. Good service I reckon.

The whole thing is mounted on an old frame that saw life originally as a testing frame for relay bases from telephone exchanges!

The pipes were cobbled together by brazing various bits to various other bits until they matched. It seems to work!

A couple of turns of the crank to prime the system, then close the tap and another turn or so will show the sphere pressure on the gauge. Release the tap and move on to the next one.

Why does anyone need to build up to regulator pressure with motors and drills etc?

Here's a picture of the overall rig, with the DS in the background, of course.
 

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pottsy said:
Why does anyone need to build up to regulator pressure with motors and drills etc?

Here's a picture of the overall rig, with the DS in the background, of course.
Click to expand...

Simple answer being it took me 20minutes to have it working on the bench with standard parts from a Citroen. You just use the regulator bleed scew to release the pressure. Once it's all primed ans setup I'm sure the pump will only take a few turns to pressurse, but the drill will priming from flat (ie: no fluid anywhere due to assembly) quite easy.

I'll post a picture when I've assembled to show how incredibly simple it is.

seeya,
Shane L.
 
The penny's just dropped. People use the regulator to hold the sphere under test! But of course. It is very simple when you think about it.

The disadvantage being that you have to overcome the regulator spring to get it all up to working. Now I understand the need for motors etc.

I guess when I threw that one together, I didn't really consider using the regulator 'cause I was already using the spare one I had in the current car as the old one used to leak.

Actually from memory (unreliable at best) I think I bolted the accumulator mount onto the frame and built the rest up around it. Different people use different thought processes!

What a weird world it would be if we all thought in parallel!
 
Hi Potsy,

actually the regulator spring is like a safety blowoff. If you have overcome it's spring your probably at about 2200psi, so far higher than any sphere could read.

I just assembled mine. Talk about simple. I put a different sphere on, quick blip of the drill and it immediatly rose to 820psi (probably 5turns of the pump). If I continued to run the pump the pressure would very slowly rise after you have filled the reseviour capabilities of the sphere. Keep it going long enough and you'll click the regulator out and the pump will just start freewheeling.

So simple yet effective. I have no idea why I didn't make one years ago (seriously about 2hour work, not pretty, nothing painted or shiny). I'll take a photo and post for you.

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Here we go:

Really, they are so bloody simple to make I can't believe I didn't do this 10years ago :mad: :nownow:

seeya,
Shane L.
 

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pottsy said:
Why does anyone need to build up to regulator pressure with motors and drills etc?
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Gee's Pottsy,

your certainly right, why bugger around with motors. I grabbed the 'speeder' bar for my socket set (you know, they look like a wheelbrace.... I've never used it 'cos I find them pointless). Swap the sphere, 3cranks with that and you can see several big bubbles appear in the plastic return line back at the reseviour. Close the bleed screw and a few more turns instantly shows the sphere pressure. Trying to drive the pump is far, far more effort than it's worth.

I'm kinda disappointed, I've got heaps of spare spheres in the shed, all but 4 were down to 50%, so need regassing.

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Hi guys,
This is my first post since joining your fine forum although I joined a while back.

I too made my own sphere tester but its way simpler than those described above. This one would take you about half an hour to make if you had the few bits it needs. Also its pretty safe because there's no huge pressurised volume to escape if it all went pear-shaped.

Any comments welcome.

See my tester here:
http://club-xm.com/forum2/index.php?showtopic=287

Cheers

norrie :cool:
 
Very intersting, isn't it amazing how many different ways people have used to do basically the same thing.

post-13-1114119348.jpg


seeya,
Shane L.
 
chris said:
Speaking of... does anyone in Aussie have/use the NZ setup where you replace the plug on top of the sphere with a screw-in valve, and then re-fill them on the car? Bliss...

Chris
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tell me more please. this is by far the most logical solution ever and I have been toying with it for some time but concerned about the schroder valve's abillity @ 100 bar
 
burrinjuck said:
tell me more please. this is by far the most logical solution ever and I have been toying with it for some time but concerned about the schroder valve's abillity @ 100 bar
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You really don't need to know more. I think the NSW club regassers spheres for about $15bux a pop. Most certainly it's not worth the effort of even considering those valves (you still need to rent a nitrogen bottle, the regulator is $600bux +++ etc, etc...).

seeya,
Shane L.
 
burrinjuck said:
concerned about the schroder valve's abillity @ 100 bar
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You're right, this is no job for a Schrader valve. The pressure is far too high.
 
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