pump problem

[jnoden]

I had bought a pw from Lowes last August. direct drive 13.5hp honda, 3700psi @4gpm. It has an AR pump on it. For some unknown reason it always takes 1-5 minutes before it puts out full pressure. I never really understood this and being that I am new to this proffession and it is a new machine, I figured that it is normal. Yesterday during a house wash the pump stopped pumping high pressure and was only at about 1/8 the pressure it should have and it never primed in to full pressure. Left it cool down and same thing. Water supply was adequate. Called Lowes and they said they will send a tech out since it is under warranty but it could take a week or more. I have some jobs lined up and think that I should just buy a new pump. Ill pull the pump off tonight to see if the drive shaft key is broke. Does anyone have some advice or suggestions? This is stressful. My next pw will be belt driven.

 

[psi-pressure]

Don’t really know about that but watch out they don’t void your warranty for trying to fix it

 

[Larry B]

It could be packing(bad from lack of water), something in the valves, a plugged screen(if you have one) or an unloader problem. Do you have an intake screen on it?

 

[Mark]

Give me a call Tuesday morning,

I will try to walk you through some diagnostics.

 

[CaroliProWash]

One thing that you need to think about, how long do you let the pressure washer sit there running in bypass. The pump heats up fast so you cant let it just sit there in bypass for very long. I can go more into detail over the phone.

Roger

 

[Spider]

pump problem?

Well, I'm not sure what's going on with my pressure washer, but I'm not getting much pressure out of it. I can get more pressure from my garden hose. This is my pump. I know it's not a very good picture. I'm sure someone can shed some light on this for me. I don't know if there is a knob to turn or not, but hopefully someone will know. [help]

 

[Larry L.]

I'm going to take a guess and say its either the unloader or the V-packing.

If you have let it run in bypass for longer then a few minutes at a time its more likely the V-packing.

Q'tion, did it lose its pressure all at once or started losing it slowly?

 

[PressureForce]

We have a little portable unit we carry sometimes that's a $400 lowes job and sometimes it does something similar - it just does not pump - the pump does not really even kick in. Sometimes it even just loses it's pressure after being strong for a few seconds. Frustrates the hell out of me.

Sometimes I just turn the thing off - let the water run - spray the gun a bit to make sure no air is in the line - turn it back on and let it run for a few seconds before I go back to spraying... So far, knock on wood - its eventually done its job. I wonder each time if it's on it's last leg though.

One thing I have wondered is if it could have something to do with the chemical injector and changing tips when there's no chemical. Is it sucking too much air? Beats me.

 

[Larry L.]

Your chemical line to the injector needs a on and off valve as to be sure no air enters.

 

[Spider]

It lost pressure from the git go. I waited about almost a month, but it was running fine when it was last shut down. Call me stupid, but what is the V-packing?
I was trying to avoid the repair shop, but I think that's where I'll be taking it this week. I'm losing money. I'm very new at this, so any money is worth reaching for at this point in the year. This is the season, and I have to grab all I can. Of all of the pressure washers I had to buy, this one was the only one that I've seen that didn't have a chemical injector, or a control knob. But then again, I'm no expert. Like I said, I'm new.
Thanks for helping the new guy out. Hopefully the repair guy won't ream my wallet too hard.

 

[Larry L.]

Try this,its called open gun.

First pull your trigger back on the gun and tape it,this is every important.

Next undo the unloader and plumb the outlet where the unloader was connected to your psi hose,the one leading to the gun.

Start the engine and if you have psi to its specks your unloader is in need of repair.

Above all make sure you tape the trigger in open as in open gun or better yet take the gun off.

Usually a pump want go bad just setting for a few months or years but a unloader will.

 

[Spider]

Well, the repair guy wanted way too much to even start to tear it down to look at it. So, it looks like I'm going to have to work on it myslef. Something that I didn't want to do. I took the connector off and cleaned it the best I could. Yes, there was a little rust but there was still water flowing through it. I just bought a can of that antifrezze stuff. I'm going to try to put it in the pump to see if it'll free up some loose particles. All else fails, I'll resort to taking the thing apart myslef and try to work on it myself. It can't be too hard, huh? Crossing my fingers.
[white]

 

[Larry L.]

They are not hard to rebuild.

Did you try unpluging the unloader and plumb for open gun?

 

[Spider]

Well, what I did was I took the high pressure hose off completely and ran it. It still came out as if I was just using a garden hose.
I did open the gun up all the way and tried that. I'm not sure what the unloader is, but I took off the part where the garden hose hooks up, cleaned it put it back on, took off the high pressure hose, ran it, put it back on and the tried the open gun thing. Still nothing. Haven't gotten around to puting the fluid in the pump yet.
One thing I did notice is that the rebuild kits are pretty expensive. I've seen them go for like 75 bucks. All I seen were o-rings and gaskets. Are they all the same? Cuz I seen one for like 15 bucks. [help]