Hydraulic gauge testing

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MikeT
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Hydraulic gauge testing

Post by MikeT »

I know this is a long shot but if you don't ask....

I've come across an hydraulic pressure gauge which ranges up to 1500psi. I thought I could test it using compressed air but it doesn't respond and I've been told it will only work on hydraulics.

So question is, does the xantia proved a suitable source for me to test the gauge is actually working? Having a 1/4 BSP male thread (common gauge size I've been told) will it fit anywhere directly or would I need an adapter?

Thanks for reading.
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Post by CitroJim »

No, nothing readily available on ther Xantia Mike and I'm not surprised it failed to work on compressed air. Secondly, it's not too wise to go tapping into Xantia hydraulic circuits...

If you wanted to test your line pressure, the best way would be to make up an adaptor to connect into the PR block. Have a natter with Martin at Pleiades

Or are you thinking of making a sphere tester. If so, go to a scrappy and get yourself a scrap pump and PR block and then off you go...
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Post by RichardW »

1500 psi is no good for Cit hydraulics - that's 'only' 104 bar - the regulator works between 140 and 170 bar. Provided you had enough air pressure to register on the gauge it should have worked - but then if you only had 40 or 50 psi, that wouldn't be much of a move on a 1500 psi gauge :lol:
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Post by MikeT »

No, I'm not planning anything (yet) other than to test the gauge is actually working or if it should be scrapped. We put a similar hydraulic gauge (but only 60psi range) on the same airline pressure and it went off the scale so I would have expected to have seen at least 1 degree of movement with the 1500psi gauge but it didn't budge even with a hard tap.
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Post by citronut »

i wouldnt conect it to a hydraulic citroen as i belive the XANT mains presure is around 2600psi,

regards malcolm
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Post by DoubleChevron »

You just need to connect it to a bit of 3.5mm line with a bubble flare on it :) That's all I did when I made my sphere tester................. But you'll need a higher pressure gauge as everyone else has stated. This is what I did :) Your local hydraulics store should sell you the connectors.

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Post by MikeT »

I've been told it won't work on an airline (though the other gauge did) and that's my only option for testing this gauge. Any other ideas? If it's not a faulty gauge, I can move forward and maybe invent new ways to use it but no point in speculating if it's not working.
Last edited by MikeT on 09 Jun 2009, 19:18, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Pleiades »

Hi Mike.

The gauge should show some sort of reading with anything, as a gauge is just a gauge, so by putting some air into it you should be able to at least see if the needle moves, most home compressors will give you about 100 psi.

As others have very wisley stated, do not use it on the car as the car when running has a max of 175- in the hydraulic curcuit and a minimum of 145-, whilst the steering runs at 150-

to get a rule of thumb measure 70- = 1000psi

Regards
Martin.
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Post by MikeT »

Pleiades wrote:Hi Mike.

The gauge should show some sort of reading with anything
Hi Martin, thanks for confirming Richards advice. I just hooked it up to a 12V tyre pump and it's gauge said it was pushing over 100psi (slight leak stopped it building higher) and the 1500psi gauge did not even climb to the first "bar" gradient which appears to be 2bar. As expected and by contrast the 30psi gauge rocketed completely round the dial as I briefly operated the pump.
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