air tool repair

The vanes probably need replacing. It's a normal thing with air tools after some time. Rebuild kits are available.
GTO(John)

I have dismantled and cleaned out a couple of air tools that were down on power and afterwards they were either like new or close to it. Part of my problem may be that my water separator is not very effective and the lubricant and moisture are forming a sludge in the tool and if it sits unused for a while the sludge thickens up a bit.
Randy Zimmerman wrote:

I have been sucessful at getting air tools that lost power back up to par usually by a good thorough cleaning, and sometimes replaceing the vanes, however I have an air rivet gun (air hammer type) that I just can't seem to get to wok no matter what I do to it. No vanes of course, no bearings either, but all it does is set there and basically makes a vibration or an occasional blow.....
This air rivet gun let me down at the most inoportune time.......I had a 16 foot flat bottom john boat that I cut a section out of to turn it into a 10 foot boat for use on my smaller pond as the 16 footer was just too large and awkward......I had all the holes drilled spice plate all cut and fit, and ready to shoot with some aircraft rivets......4 rows of rivets spaced 5/8" apart 2 rows in each half of the boat, through the splice plate and also an internal doubler. Mixed up my sealant, a rubberized coating thats super strong has a work life of approx 1 hour........Spread a coat of the sealer on the boats portions, the main splice section and doubler, Kleco'd it all together, and started to shoot the rivets............after the 7th rivet the gun died........what a mess to say the least........I was using #4 rivets, button heads, and in the end wound up having to set them all by hand with a bucking bar and ball pein hammer.......the boat does not leak but the rivets set, and flattened heads on the rivets, leaves a lot to be desired, certainly not one of my better jobs I have ever done.......Since then I have torn that gun apart probably a dozen times, and have yet to get it to function. Its a good quality tool, with very little use.........not the typical HF type tool. Visit my website: expressed are those of my wife, I had no input whatsoever. Remove "nospam" from email addy.

Greetings Randy, I have made my air tools run much better by removing and cleaning the vanes and the vane slots. There was just enough old oily stuff to make the vanes stick. I'm sure the crud was emulsified oil and water. Anyway, cleaning them so they moved freely really helped. ERS

Just a wild-assed guess, but my air hammer did the same sort of thing once because the shank of the tool in it had worn down too short. The hammer doodad would reach the end of its travel and start to reverse before striking. New tool bit solved the problem. I think the tool bit had a void in it because I haven't had another collapse that far since even after far more use.

That's the problem. Princess Auto "Tips" claim that over oiling is the most frequent cause of poor air tool performance. My (Princess Auto) die grinder is several years old and runs like new. I give it one or two _drops_ of air tool oil occasionally.
I would suggest dismantling, thorough cleaning (50/50 Xylol/Acetone) and reassemble.
Ted

My Princess Auto 35 dollar die grinder runs cirlces around this CP. My guess is that I will have to dismantle this one at work. Now to find some quiet time. Work is too hectic right now. I have nightmares about springs or spacers behind the vanes then losing some key piece. Any exploded diagrams around on the Web? Randy

One trick that works fairly well is to dmp the whole tool in a bucket of fuel oil (No. 2 diesel works). Loosens rust, gets water out fairly well, softens and removes congealed tool oil and crud. Let it soak a day or two, pull it, wipe it down, and go to town. I have air tools that are 30, 40, 50 years old that were magically resurected this way, as well as improving sticky die grinders, etc.