sephlaire

I finally got my ARB air compressor installed today and ran into what I think might be a problem and would like some advice...

After I spliced the red/yellow unstripped wire to the pink/blue on the driver's side lighter I was able to turn on my compressor. YAY! but then I noticed that when I pushed the ARB button to the down position, the compressor still would not turn off. I even tried turning the ignition off but to my surprise the compressor was still on.

Is there a reason for this? everything is wired correct according to the ARB instruction manual and WOL's rightup so I am confused. I'm thinking maybe the compressor is trying to air itself up to max psi or something before turning off but I have no idea.

This also led me to my second discovery that the power connector on the compressor seems to have a loose connection to the wiring harness... if I jiggle that connection the compressor will turn on and off but thats not as big a deal to me as not turning off at all.

sephlaire

So far I've re-sealed the 'T' joint with a good amount of Teflon tape at each end, and made sure all bolts on the compressor were tight.

Unfortunately as soon as I put the negative wire back onto the battery the compressor starts and will not shut off. This all happens even though I have spliced the red/yellow wire.

I did notice that after I remove the black wire from the negative battery terminal, there is a 'hissss' sound from the compressor. Is the compressor supposed to leak air out once it turns off or hold it's pressure? For those who care the compressor is a CKMA12.

Tiburon

Sounds to me like you have a leak and the leak doesn't let the tank reach the pressure required to shut off the compressor with the pressure shutoff valve. It definitely is not supposed to hiss when you shut it off.

sephlaire

That's what I was afraid of. Since this is a brand new compressor that I order a few months ago and just got around to putting it on now... should I contact Northridge4x4 who i bought it from or ARB for a replacement?

Tiburon

I'd check for the source of the leak. Maybe it just needs some tightening or teflon tape at a connection. If it's not a connection then I would definitely contact Dave at Northridge.

Menard666

Is the CKMA12 the high output compressor? You definitely do not have it wired correctly. If you did, when you splice into the left cigarette lighter, which is the keyed socket, your compressor should only get power with the ignition turned on and the compressor switch turned on. Do you have any pictures of your wiring and install?

As for hearing air leaking when off, can you pinpoint where it is coming from. Could you have overtightened the fitting into the compressor and cracked the end cap? Or not tightened the fittings enough? Did you put teflon tape or liquid teflon on the pipe threads?

sephlaire

It sounds like the leak is comming from underneath the motor assembly... It's possible the leak could be on the bottom side on one of the O-Rings or possibly one of the nipples used for lockers but I havent touched either of those so it may have came like this. Since Dave probably wont be around until Monday anyway, I'll probably unmount the compressor to take a better look tomorrow when there is more daylight to work.

sephlaire

I used teflon tape on all of the fittings. I will go out with a camera now and try to get some pics while there is still some light outside. Ill check for crack on the endcap as well since I really hope I didn't over tighten.

Yes, this is the high output and it is spliced to the proper wire. At first before I spliced that the compressor would not come on. After I got the splice it worked properly but after turning the switch on once, the compressor never turned off again so I'm very confused.

sephlaire

Compressor Under the Hood


Wires in the back of the ARB Switch


Plug-In Fitting


Splice Wire to Driver's Side Power



If there are any other views you want to see let me know. Since it is not shutting off, I do not have a pic of the wires on the batter but I'll explain how I had them... Red Wire was on the Positive Terminal;
Black/White Wire was on the Negative Terminal
Black (small wire) was on the ground according to Step 26 of WoL's writeup. I did notice however that the ARB instructions wanted me to commect the small black wire to the Negative along with the BLK/WHT wire. So I have tried both set-ups.

STUPIDFACE

When i first hooked mine up, i had one of the solenoids backwards. The compressor would just blow through them and not pressurize the tank. I didnt read every word in this thread, but wanted to mention that. If you have the compressor on, and you hear air coming out of the little holes on the solenoid, that could be the problem.