Vacuum

"Not to alarm you, but the suction failed" was the message I received. Which of course, in fact I found quite alarming. One of the "must haves" of the OR is to have suction available, and tucked away in our utility building is our vacuum pump cycling on and off keeping a steady 25 inHg of vacuum in the system. This particular piece of equipment happens to be the oldest that we have in regular service. Built in 1989, something you won't find on this machine is any kind of micro-controller. Just relays, motor starters, and pressure switches. A feature that I think has helped it to weather the poor power quality here for so many years. Thankfully we were able to get the pump running again with some cleaning of the motor starter contacts. However it was a harsh reminder to me that we don't currently have a backup pump ready. The machine is a duplex system but the secondary pump has been out of commission for as long as I have been coming around. So we decided we might as well start with that unit. Very quickly it became apparent why the pump was no longer in use. Upon removal of the belt guard we found the inner race of the bearing was no longer in place with the rest of the bearing.

It appeared to have been run for awhile like this because the oil seal was all but gone and the seal holder had a lot of evidence that it had become the new "bearing" surface.

While inconvenient none of this is exactly a show stopper. There are plenty of stories in the Bible of people being inconvenienced and getting through it so this won't be any different. A replacement bearing has been located. The oil seal is still in the works but I'm praying that here in the next week I'll find one that matches the dimensions I need.

Keep after it!