Is it possible to clean and/or dismantle the vacuum controlled plastic air flap actuator (see picture) on my oil bath air cleaner? It seems to operate as it should, with negative pressure applied to the nozzle, but on moving the lever up and down it feels/sounds like there is a lot of crud in the chamber. Or should I leave it well alone if it is working? Thanks Richard
You can clean it , but take care- on mine at some point , the top of the slot in the moving post that the metal flap hooks into snapped off. So I had to make a scissors spring out of some springy wire that pulled the flap when the plunger shot down with manifold vacuum from under my progressive carburettor.
Can you separate the 2 halves of the chamber to get at the internal components or is it a sealed unit?
I am pretty sure its sealed. You could always gently work it in and out while sucking up eg. white spirit to dissolve the crud. I think mine is coated in filthy gritty old oil so the crunchiness is outside. Also some of the crackling I think is a plastic membrane flexing not dirt. This also shows my repair spring.
Thanks very much Mike. I think I might leave it alone just now, assuming it works ok when I put it back in place. Richard
Sometimes the vacuum thermo switch lets you down by being gunked up, or as I found on a really hot day last year, it works OK until the temperature at the top of the air cleaner reaches about 45C sitting in a traffic queue then it opens up again and lets air up from the cylinder head when it should not. So mine now has a 12 volt bimetallic strip thermostat in the carburettor inlet, and an EGR actuator vacuum solenoid valve to connect and disconnect the manifold vacuum..
