AMK Compressor rebuild/replace

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greiswig

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I may be running into a limitation of the search engine here, but I can only find a little info about the AMK compressors, which I have on my 2016 LR4. One post that I ran across said that Lucky 8 had described them as "not rebuildable."

I'd been planning on getting a rebuild kit for the compressor and the air dryer for when the inevitable happens, to carry with me. Is there truly no way to rebuild this thing?
 

ryanjl

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You may already know this, but I believe the "rebuildable" part of the compressor is really just the air drier, and involves replacing old desiccant with new.

Folklore was the AMK compressor was more reliable, but that's probably because they were just newer.

I do know the Hitachi and AMK look a lot different than one-another from the outside, so not sure the rebuilt kit for the former will work with the latter.

This is all to not really answer your question at all. I'd probably call Lucky 8 and see what they say.
 

greiswig

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Thanks, @ryanjl . I did find some things like this that replaces internals, but actually nothing about the desiccant. I can't tell whether the desiccant is kind of part of that assembly, or located elsewhere, or what.
 

ryanjl

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The AMK looks like it consists of 2 cannisters, and the drier is one of them.

Who knows if this is accurate, but here's a link where you can buy the drier cannister itself: https://www.amazon.com/Compressor-Cylinder-Desiccant-Suspension-Discovery/dp/B08G59VJMW That would be just the body, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

What happens over time is that the desiccant starts to degrade and the compressor then pumps desiccant dust all through the system, which causes issues with the downstream valves in the compressor and all the way to the valve blocks at the front and back of the Rover.
 

greiswig

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Interesting. Sounds like the desiccant ought to be part of the regular maintenance.

Anyone know what the desiccant actually is? Silica beads that can be purchased separately?

Or even whether that Aramox unit has the desiccant built-in?
 

greiswig

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Does anyone know how this desiccant system works? It looks really small to me, like it would only hold a tablespoon or two of silica, and I wonder how it could possibly dry air for any length of time. And with the number of compressor and valve issues that seem to be related to the desiccant, it almost seems like the intake for the compressor ought to be up under the hood (higher), and have a larger tank of desiccant to work through, along with an air filter between that and the compressor. But maybe I'm thinking about a problem that isn't really there.
 

ryanjl

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I think the air intake is inside of the driver's-side rear wheel, on the opposite side of the framerail from the spare. It looks like a cannister, so it may have some sort of drier in it, too.
 

jlglr4

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I believe ryanjl is correct on the intake location (I think it’s actually inside the cargo compartment, accessible through drivers side access panel). But I think that’s an air filter on the intake end rather than another drier.
 

ryanjl

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Yeah, come to think of it, I believe you are right. I was just under the back of mine today rotating my tires, and took some time to spray some rust reformer on a few spots with surface rust while my spare was removed.
 

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