Spring Plunger Freezing Up:

[Brent Deines]

That is exactly what we do in our shop except that we lock the plunger in upper "vacuum" position, place in the jar of alcohol and shake vigorously for a few seconds, then set the plunger in the lower "pressure" position, place back in the jar of alcohol and shake vigorously again for a few seconds, remove and store upright in the lower position in the top tray of the tool box with the lid closed. I personally also use compressed air when available to blow off both injector parts as revive recommended but I think I'm the only one in our shop that does that. I can't remember when we introduced that style of injector but it has been well over 10 years ago and so far none of my employees have had one seize up on them.

In trying to figure out what happened in your case candyman, here are a few things to consider.

Always store the injector in the lower position as per Delta Kits instructions. We already know from your post that you did not do this which was part of the problem.

Rinse and refill your cleaning jar with fresh alcohol daily. I've seen technicians use the same alcohol to clean their injectors for weeks on end. Once the alcohol gets enough resin mixed in the cleaning capability is greatly diminished. As a side note, be sure you use Nitrile gloves when cleaning your injector parts. Resin is absorbed through the skin even faster when mixed with the less viscous alcohol.

Do not turn your spring loaded injector upside down. I mentioned this previously but I cannot stress it enough. If you turn the injector upside down resin will seep into the spring area. The tolerances are very tight and the resin is more viscous than alcohol so a quick dip or even a 2 minute soak may not be enough to remove the resin from the spring area if too much resin gets in there. Think of placing an oily glass in a sink full of dishwater. If you just set the glass in there for a couple of minutes and remove it you will likely still have an oily film on the glass but if you agitate the water and/or the glass the oil will be removed. Now think of how much more difficult this task is if you are washing an oily eye dropper. Even more agitation is required because of the tight spaces you need to get clean. If you do turn the injector upside down be sure to take extra precautions when cleaning to make sure "all" of the resin has been removed from the spring area.

Use compressed air. Although we have not found this necessary if you are doing everything else correctly, using compressed air is a great way to make sure you have the majority of the resin out of the plunger before you clean it with alcohol and to make sure all of the alcohol has been removed by blowing out before you start your next repair. I'm a fanatic about keeping my tools clean and in perfect condition, especially if it is a tool I use daily to bring home the bacon, so I tend to go beyond what is necessary and blow off my injectors before rinsing them in alcohol and after removing them from alcohol.

Always store the injector parts separately in the vertical position in your tool box with the lid closed. Although this is not necessary if your injector is perfectly clean, if you did not get 100% of the resin out taking these precautions will lessen the chances of the plunger freezing up. Although everyone says they do this, I often see injectors left screwed together with the plunger in the vacuum position, laying horizontally in an open tool box, or worse yet, on the dashboard of their car. You are tempting fate if you do this.

Store the injector in alcohol when not in use for prolonged periods of time. Again, I've never found this to be necessary but the alcohol will not hurt the injector so if you are not going to be using it for a few days you can store the parts separately in a jar of fresh alcohol making sure the plunger is in the pressure position as an extra precaution.

Finally, if your injector does freeze up do not apply heat or use tools to get it working again. Just send it to Delta Kits and let us do it for you. We can't guarantee it but in most cases we can get it working again without damaging the injector. Unfortunately nearly all injectors that are returned to us show signs of excess heat and/or tool marks from the technician's attempt to fix it themselves.

As I said in my last post, I won't speculate as to how the resin got in the plunger or why after 4 years your cleaning process suddenly failed to remove it, but I do know from your post that not all of the resin was removed from the spring area and that the plunger was not correctly stored in the pressure position as per Delta Kits instructions. Hopefully one or more of the tips above will be helpful for you and anyone else who has experienced this problem.

Although employees who don't have to pay for replacement parts out of their pocket sometimes have this problem over and over again, it's rare that it ever happens twice to the person who has to write the check for a new one. As always, if you believe a Delta Kits product to be defective, simply return it to us for evaluation. While we can't warranty anything with tool marks, signs of excess heat, or other obvious signs of abuse, we are pretty liberal with our warranty policy.

[Dr.Chipster]

This thread made me think of a question. In the event of a plunger seizure, can you use the plunger as a screw type of injection while you are waiting for a new one to arrive. And for those wondering, my injectors are just fine.

[ChampionCHIP,wsr]

when I first started this business I did just that. left the injector in UV I guess and it was frozen. I called delta and spoke with someone who said to use a torch caerfully to unfreeze it. and it worked. that was my first and last time it happened. hope that helps
paul

[Brent Deines]

This thread made me think of a question. In the event of a plunger seizure, can you use the plunger as a screw type of injection while you are waiting for a new one to arrive. And for those wondering, my injectors are just fine.

If it is frozen in the pressure position you can use it as a screw type injector. It's rare that it gets stuck in the position however.

[Brent Deines]

when I first started this business I did just that. left the injector in UV I guess and it was frozen. I called delta and spoke with someone who said to use a torch caerfully to unfreeze it. and it worked. that was my first and last time it happened. hope that helps
paul

Yep, we used to tell people that but too many times they ruined the plunger so now we ask customers to send them back to us instead. Too much heat takes the temper out of the spring and makes it useless so you have to be very careful when applying heat. We just can't recommend that any longer.