Thread: New Airbags....Compressor next to Fail

The 01 D2 had a case of the occasional saggy butt at the most in opportune times, until I opened my wallet and bought some bags from Airbag Man at Brendale (Brisbane ).

An hour or so's work and the problem was fixed.
No more saggy butt.

Except the compressor was sounding like one of those Supacrap $20.00 dollar units after ingesting Teewah beach sand.
The Disco then started to suffer from slow saggy butt.

After trying to ignore the sound.......and the cost of a new compressor, I decided to pull the compressor apart when it died.

Quite an easy job (see pics), and I found a simple unit with few moving parts totally immersed in rusty water.
The final show stopper was one of the rusted brush springs had failed.(pic no 6)
Therefore, no power to the motor.
For nine years of operation there was very little wear evident on the components.....except for rust damage.
Maybe Wabco's built in obsolescence by failing to seal the thing correctly, and Land Rover mounting it under a 4WD contributed to its demise?

The Disco has not been off the bitumen, or been near a flood for three years.(unfortunately)
(It is the cook's shopping trolley at the moment)
But, when opened, water ran out of the motor...........
Yes. The inlet filtration is intact.

After a clean up, greased bearings, and a brush spring off an old Jap starter motor, plus silicon sealing, it was reassembled and now runs like a Land Rover compressor should, albeit with slightly noisy bearings (no pun intended).

I would have preferred to change the bearings to bring the motor back to 90%, but Wabco appear to have assembled it as a throw away unit.......which is great for Wabco.
Maybe an "expert" has already done a complete dis assembly.
If so......................

How can I remove the crank end bearing from the motor?
The commutator end bearing and connecting rod bearing are a simple press fit. But the crank end bearing????????

The compressor works fine for the moment. Just a little noisy.
If the bearings could be replaced, it should give years of trouble free service.
If not, when it fails, I will adapt a generic 12volt compressor to the existing valve block assembly... A reasonably simple and inexpensive job.
I have researched using an ARB low capacity compressor (used for their diff lockers) which will fit in the existing space under the vehicle, or inside, out of the elements..........or almost any 12volt compressor could be adapted.
If the Landrover valve block is retained, overpressure, filtration, and electrics is not an issue.
Plus. With a little ingenuity, one has a compressor for tyre inflation as a bonus.

I apologize if I have unintentionally plagiarized another's work on repairing D2 compressors.
Please feel free to contribute, discuss,or criticize on how to save a buck with a Wabco compressor.

the ones i have taken apart that look like the one above are beyond putting back together. i would hazzard a guess that most ppls failed compressors are not primarily due to overworking from leaking bags, but from overworking a rusted out pump that is just waiting for an excuse to die, i.e leaking airbag. the construction of the pump to me looks like it would not die due to overuse if it was in good nick.