We were doing quite well on sprinkler blowouts yesterday until the 30 year old starter on my compressor decided to kick the bucket. We took off the old starter and purchased a new one, got it installed, and then were on our way again, doing a few sprinkler blowouts, but a horrible noise was coming from the area of the transmission. A very short time later our compressor wouldn’t turn over at all. We took off the new starter and noticed that the spindle inside was broken. After taking it back to Autozone and picking up a new one and getting it installed, we were on our way AGAIN. We did a few more sprinkler blowouts and found the same noise had returned, and within a very short while our compressor would not start. It was getting close to dark by this point, and we knew we would not be able to get it fixed in time to hit the road again, so we decided to call quits until the next day.
My guess is the flywheel decided to go bad on us, which is strange, because it was working fine until we installed the new starter, so we are hoping we weren’t given the wrong starter to begin with. This morning we are going to remove the starter and examine the flywheel. If it is damaged, we will have to replace it, which will probably take half the day to accomplish. Fortunately, our compressor is a 302 Windsor motor, like in the old Ford Mustangs, so we should be able to get it apart in a reasonable amount of time and change the flywheel.
I am sure with the bad weather and all this diversity some other companies may give up for the season, but we aren’t one of them. We will not quit until all sprinkler blowouts on our list are complete, or we run into a situation where the compressor cannot be repaired in a reasonable amount of time.
This could not have happened at a worse time since the weather is cooperating. If we get the compressor running today, we will continue in the Boise 83709 zip code. We appreciate your patience, but if you feel you need to look elsewhere for your sprinkler blowouts this season by all means do so, but send us an email so we can remove you from our list.