Spark plug "air compressor"

Gidday, one answer,where do you think the fuel from the cylinder goes.
Not good for the inside of the tyres or tubes.Buy a good compressor they a lot better.Just my bit.
Seeya Locallaw

I heard about one being used on an old Series ??? Landrover. Don't know anymore than that but I remember them saying it worked on those oldies but not on others. No idea why.

Casnat.
The principal is good, air is sucked in from a reed valve in the unit, no fuel gets involved in the older motors because there is no vacum in the cylinder to draw the fuel in. In the fuel injected motors some fuel will be sprayed into the cylinder. The main problem with these tyre inflaters is the heat build up in the valve body, they get very hot as the air is rushing in and out a relatively small hole, this leads to the valves and hose melting. The best pump ever made is an Ausy built Rega Easy.
Eric.

Trev,

Used them years ago, some were of good manufacture, and others not so good. They did a good job, long before blue tongues, max-airs and the like. Can't remember how long it took to pump tyres up, but most of them were used on 2WD's.

On one station I worked on, the workshop air compressor was made of an old lawn mower engine, with one of these screwed into plug hole, and driven by a 32v DC motor. Probably worked a lot quicker than a hand or foot pump.

Was always talk of the petrol in the "air" perishing the tube, but think most tubes, and tyres, were buggered long before the perishing set in.

Hooroo...

Same...used one in a Series 2 Landie, worked fine, reasonably fast too

I used to use 'em years ago on the farm as a young boy. Called a Mensel pump or something like that I think. Worked fine then but that was back in the EH to HG Holden days and carby fed at that. I reckon things are a bit too sophisticated nowadays and portable compressors wouldn't have even been imagined back then either.
My portable 12V job pumps up tyres on two vehicles with 285/75R16's no problems. Good thing cos it's a diesel and the other thing wouldn't work !!!

I didn't know that you could still buy them. I will have to remove that from the "good 'ol days" list...... michael.

well seems like they are not just "snake oil" necessarily but sounds like no-one has heard of them since "the good 'ol days". Probably says something about how good they were/are. If they were terrific we would all still be using them I guess.

Perhaps the coming of fuel injection may make a difference?

It will probably come down to how cheaply I can pick up the unit on offer. I don't think it will replace today's compressors but may be a cheap safety net to have on hand in case of equipment failure.

God, those were the days!

2 Toyotas & 3 Suzukis ........ all at once. ( Sheep Station).

Lots of punctures, split rims on the tojos, cant remember what we were running on the suzukis. Anyway, we had 3 of those things. That's ALL we used as well.

I was only thinking the other day about them............

Shlt fella's........ we're gettin' old!

Wolfie

Trying not to sound negative, BUT, for the price of a second, back up, compresssor, is it worth playing with an expensive engine. running the motor one cylinder down, causing it to be out of balance, just to inflate a tyre. Don't the others you go bush with carry compressors?? Most later model EFI cars will sense a problem, when unburnt fuel hits the oxegen sensor and shortening the injector pulse does not fix it, the computer will go to limp home mode or a preset fuel map to stop it lean burning.

Oh how well I remember these gadgets, used one on my last petrol 4wd, 20 years ago, an FJ40.
You'd come off Stockton Beach after fishing most of the night, half shot on thermal rum. The procedure went something like this,
1. Fall out of truck.
2. Find plug spanner.
3. Drop plug spanner
4. Swear
5. Crawl in sand until spanner found.
6. Remove hot spark plug
7. Drop hot spark plug.
8. Swear
9. Fit pump and start inflating tyres.
10. Crawl in sand until hot plug found, usually with aid of bare skin.
11. Remove pump
12. Refit skin cooled spark plug and go home.

Then we got smart, carried two spares. Both inflated to the maximum the local servo compressor could generate.
We made a hose with two tyre connections on it, one clamped and the other you held on the valve stem.
All we did then was clamp off the hose on one spare and inflate two tyres to road pressure. Repeat with second spare.

Far fewer burnt fingers,
Geoff.