Folks:
I have an issue with my relatively new, Harbor Freight upright garage compressor. The unit is about a year old, but only seen light use.
Last month, it wouldn't start and sounded like it was straining, so I immediately shut it off. I pulled the motor cover and found two motor screws had backed out, into the cooling fan blade. This was the straining sound I heard. I put the two screws back in place, checked the others and fired it up. The unit started right up and filled the canister to 125 lbs of air, as normal. As the motor shut down, a small brass bleeder type valve in the switch popped up, releasing all the air. At 90 lbs, it started running again, but it constantly releases all the air. I fiddled around with the two adjustment screws, one of which is a plastic screw in the plastic switch housing. I screwed it down too tight, breaking the end of the plastic housing.
I ordered a replacment switch on Ebay, and it was identical to the OEM switch (Harbor Freight was back ordered on the switch for several months).
I put the new switch in, and the same thing happens, as soon as it hits 125 lbs, that bleeder valve releases all the air.
Here's a picture of the top of the switch, showing the two screws:
Here's that bleeder valve built-in to the switch housing. It's directly under that brass union nut:
Does anyone know what is causing this bleeder valve to release? It never did this before and would hold air for several weeks.
