Air impact gun question
- Thread starter jabberwoki
- Start date
sparky 1971
Well-known member
I had an air ratchet do that once. I smacked it on the floor and it started working fine.
look on ereplacementparts.com . in particular the forward/reverse switch. see if there's o rings or seals that may have gone bad.
Yeah definitely looks mint. Well taken care of for sure.
Carguy99
Well-known member
once or twice a year I was over lube m6air stuff and run it out. I’ve had good luck with marvel mystery air tool oil. May help
never is too much lube a bad thing. Lol
never is too much lube a bad thing. Lol
OP
jabberwoki
Well-known member
You know there always is one snarky ***** about.
Can't say anything good? Shut up.
Jswain
Well-known member
A lot of people here don't actually use their tools, they just buy them.
I actually had to double back and check the photo again to see if he was being sarcastic or not lol....depending on age looks pretty good to me for a painted impact
I would honestly sit down at a clean bench, watch a YouTube video if you haven't before and open it up. Clean up everything well & put it back together, lightly coat the parts in oil & it will probably be like new. Once you figure out how easy it is, it will be a 20 min job
dnschmidt
Well-known member
That's an I-R Thundergun which is nothing different than a conventional I-R 231 I believe. There are a LOT of YouTube videos available on how to rebuild these. They are quite simple and if it currently doesn't work taking it apart isn't going to make it any worse than it already is. This is the most common air impact ever produced. By modern standards it's pretty weak at 450 ft-lb but it's done everything I've asked it to do for the forty years I've owned it.
I dunno I thought it was pretty good.
Easier to open up and inspect than it is to start a thread here. Not that starting a thread is a bad idea just that these guns are simple systems with simple fasteners. Put some newspaper out on a clean bench and take a look inside. Likely something very simple.
OP
jabberwoki
Well-known member
I`m going to take out the direction switch today and have a look .
Great white
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2009
- Messages
- 175
Most impact guns that have issues are either rust (no air dryer in the line) or they just gum up over time. The oiling, although necessary, eventually causes the "gum" and you just have to take it apart and give it a good cleaning.
Both those issues can also cause a loss of power, which I what I usually notice before anything else. Simple matter to tear them down and clean them, especially if you've done it before a few times. They're not very complicated machines.....
Both those issues can also cause a loss of power, which I what I usually notice before anything else. Simple matter to tear them down and clean them, especially if you've done it before a few times. They're not very complicated machines.....
OP
jabberwoki
Well-known member
Jswain
Well-known member
Did you take it apart yet?
OP
jabberwoki
Well-known member
Started to tonight but i`ve held off till i get some grease.
Looking forward to it thou.
I did pull out the reversing switch and it`s quite dirty but the o rings look good.
Looking forward to it thou.
I did pull out the reversing switch and it`s quite dirty but the o rings look good.
Last edited:
If the reverse switch engages fully in both directions and snaps into place do not take it apart, there is a small spring and detent ball that you will lose or if not is a pain in the *** to assemble. Have you rotated the reverse switch so both sides point a "5"? The power settings on those tools are super confusing and useless. My guess is that is the issue.
"Street Legal" not the real thing.
seber
Well-known member
Not that I have done this but you might try a shot of injector cleaner to free it up.
dnschmidt
Well-known member
What does that mean? It obviously an authentic I-R gun."Street Legal" not the real thing.
Jswain
Well-known member
Be careful with that as I've ruined as least 1 trigger valve seat from swelling using volatile chemicals...
If something like wd40 or mystery oil or ATF doesn't free it up I would just take it apart and clean it.
Last edited:
OP
jabberwoki
Well-known member
It`s alive.... thanks all.
Beerhippie
Well-known member
O-rings are cheap. Looking at an o-ring tells you nothing about the condition. I replace every o-ring, every time, on everything I take apart.
Chances are, the new ones you buy will be better quality than the OEM ones, anyhow. Buna-Nitrile is always a good choice for most uses.
Going along with the above, and I shouldn't have to say this here, but o-rings are not supposed to be reused. Yeah, I'm sure you can get away with it sometimes, but when used in a dynamic application they only have a 15% max "squeeze"; so, if you've got a .060" cross section, that's not a lot of allowable wear.
vssjim
ALLIANCE MEMBER
same impact parts bigger air motor actually started out as a IR244 which is a step up from a IR231 torque wise
The actual Thunder gun is what was used in NASCAR for 40+ years which was never available to the public, it didn't use a twin hammer mechanism, but instead a rocking dog mechanism, the motor had bronze endplates and a lot of hand working. They were sold to the race teams for something like $2k each (don't quote me, I'm basing that off mfg cost). Sometime in the 2000's IR introduced a version of the 231 that looks like the NASCAR gun but is mass produced called the "Street Legal Thundergun" (guess who came up with that name).
The 244 actually had a motor that was a 1/4" longer, the Thundergun had the same length motor but had the hammer case bolt pattern reversed so the single bolt is on top which supposedly provides more exhaust flow like the older Mac AW234 or AW434 (made by IR). At the end of the day, it never mattered, as the handle exhaust version was able to have as good or better performance.
dnschmidt
Well-known member
All correct except for one detail. When I was a member of a Grand National Stock Car team, Lasky Racing from Pennsylvania in 1978-1979, a representative of I-R GAVE US Thunderguns at Daytona International Speedway (Well at least I didn't see any money changing hands). We also got free gas from 76 and free spark plugs from Earl Parker (the spark plug whisperer) who worked for Champion. I was the assistant engine builder for the team, Clem Zahrobsky was my mentor, and I wasn't strong or fast enough to be a tire changer, but, I did glue the lugnuts to the wheels with the dreaded "yellow death" 3M weatherstrip adhesive. I also thought that the unique lug nut socket used with the Thunderguns was an engineering marvel.
Sounds like good times. Not sure what the deal was then regarding getting free tools vs. paying for them, I do know that Howard Hurd was a distributor that started supplying NASCAR in the 60's and then his grandson, Jimmy took over at some point.