Jaeger air compressor

• Jaeger Stuff.

I have worked on a 1953 Jaeger with an inline 4 cylinder Continental powering a large Westinghouse or LeRoi 3 cylinder recip driven through a hand operated clutch, and a 1962 Jaeger vane with an inline 6 cylinder Continental. If you have a recip, you may still find parts are available, whether it is a Westinghouse pump or a LeRoi. If it is a vane, parts may be unavailable, but these are quite simple to fix unless a case is split, or a rotor is split. Intake valves are readily rebuldable, and the control system is simple. The vane itself suffers mostly from delamination of the fiber blades over time. They can also absorb oil and swell into their slots, preventing the vane from pumping air. It would not be difficult to have them fabricated, either from aluminum or from a micarta-like material. I beleieve the vane runs on ball or roller bearings, so replacing them shouldn't be too difficult. Most likely it would use a John Crane type seal for the input shaft. One of the nice things about these vanes is that most of them were two stage, so you can get 150 psi out of them pretty easily.

The biggest issue with rebuilding a vane is the end clearance between the rotor and the vane housing. If it is too big, the vane will not pump efficiently and it will overheat, due to compressed air slipping past the end of the rotor and being re-compressed over and over again. If the end gap is too small, the natural growth of the rotor length as it comes up to operating temperature will bring it into contact with the vane end housing and it will seize.

Once again I have been too long winded. Look at the air tank for a small metal tag spot welded to it. There you will find the year that it was built, that will be a starting point for you anyway.