AMK Suspension Compressor Replacement and Rebuild

[Land Rover Joe]

Tribe,

AMK Compressor rebuild complete to include the installation of new piston (purchased from a Chinese manufacturer through eBay which I believe is the supplier to AMK itself; this was the only way I could find the item after we broke the piston extracting it from the brushings / crank). It works again and so I now have a rebuilt back-up / replacement or swap compressor.

I was a bit surprised how worn the compressor was after 6 years in there...but that probably should be expected. The desiccant / dryer was pretty much shot and no longer of much use - needing replacement.

I opted to do a full swap with a new unit and then rebuild the whole compressor - just to see. A lot harder than expected....

 

[Land Rover Joe]

Here is an overview photo with all the parts broken down.

Also is the box the new piston arrived in (with part number - which is the same for a lot of vehicles which use this AMK model, such as Mercedes).

Also, another photograph of the dryer beads and replacement seals available from AirSeals UK.

 

[Land Rover Joe]

Here is a close up of the fasteners used in the compressor - all which will come out with a complete tear down.

And a photograph of two very troublesome bolts which attach the plastic unit / air intake to the aluminum body - they are torx and corroded so badly that they had to be extracted by welding another fastener on (the torx head got stripped). We replaced with Phillips of the same size/type.

Also, this spring is important in the air intake to hold the valve down - it seemed to be serviceable and in good shape so we just reused it.

 

[Land Rover Joe]

Here are a few close-ups of what the new piston looks like.

 

[Land Rover Joe]

And what the Cylinder Looks like -

 

[Land Rover Joe]

This is what the brushing with copper winding and crank assembly looks like (note the piston bearing at the end of the crank which was stuck on - we used a manual press to press it off and then press the new piston with bearing on).

 

[Land Rover Joe]

Here are close-ups of the electric armatures -

 

[Land Rover Joe]

This is the aluminum cylinder block -

Also a photograph of the new Piston Compression Rings (the new Piston came with rings already installed so they were not needed - I purchased them on eBay as well).

 

[Land Rover Joe]

These are photographs of the plastic housing for the dryer (desiccant) and air intake for the compressor.

Most folks focus on this as you can just pull the compressor, open the front plate for the air intake and then replace the seals / o-rings and desiccant beads. A lot easier than tearing the whole thing down...and the desiccant probably lasts only ~ 5 years (my guess).

 

[Land Rover Joe]

Here are close-up photographs of the front plate (which goes on the plastic dryer assembly) as well as the reverse. The tubing goes in and out of that plate, which is what are the wholes are for.

Also, a close up of the rear plate.