What A Piston Pump Looks Like - Suspension Installation

Here's a look at a piston-style...        read full caption Here's a look at a piston-style pump torn down so we can give you a look at what it consists of.

We caught up to the guys at...        read full caption We caught up to the guys at AH-2 who were going to change out a blown pump head on a piston-style pump. The first thing on the agenda was to remove the ground or power to the system, allowing you to work on this setup safely.

The armature and casing were...        read full caption The armature and casing were removed from the pump to lighten up some weight when it was time to remove it from the trunk.

By now we're sure that you've all heard of a piston pump. The piston-style pump has been around for years and was the industry's best-kept secret until they allowed it at our hydraulic competition a few years back. The first versions of this style pump were crude because the home-made designs had to be concealed in the 18-gauge oil tank. Once the hydraulic judges realized that safety was being compromised, the ban was lifted to allow the industry to grow and reinvent itself.

This style of gate pump could be compared to a supercharger because it uses force air feed technology to feed fluid to the hydraulic pump head. For all you drinkers, it's like drinking a beer through a beer funnel or beer bong. With air or nitrogen in the system it could be considered a dangerous pump--and nobody has ever wanted to do an article on the gate pump. With that said, we caught up with the team at AH-2 in Santa Fe Springs, California, who were going to change out a blown pump head on a piston-style pump. We took advantage of the situation to document the teardown and hopefully give you some safety pointers to help avoid any mishaps.

Some of the advantages of owning a single-piston pump is that they create the same amount of pressure as two traditional pumps to the front of any car. This will eliminate wasted space in the trunk and allow you to fill it with more batteries since some of these pumps need more power to make them work properly. The average setup consists of six batteries. Piston-equipped setups require a minimum of eight batteries to allow the pump to spin properly.

One of the downsides of having a piston-style pump is the fact that you need to be careful because it could be compared to carrying a nitrogen bottle in your trunk. Since the piston pump's been made public, we've heard stories of guys trying to tear down pumps on the car, and the tanks or the piston shoots into the quarter panels of the car because they forgot to release the air pressure. Even though there is no specific amount of air that is recommended, most people don't run more than 100 psi of air pressure in their tank. There have been rumors of some people running tanks with 300 psi in them--this is not recommended--which is like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. If a piston can take out a quarter panel with its force, just imagine what it will do to a human.

Follow along as we show you some of the dos and don'ts when working on a piston-style pump, as the men over at AH-2 show us how to replace the pump head on this style hydraulic pump.

The second most important...        read full caption The second most important thing to do is release all the air out of the tank. In our case, we released 90 psi.	Once you think all of the...        read full caption Once you think all of the air is out, double-check it by cracking the tank plug loose. Make sure you don't take it off completely, just loosen the plug and allow all the air to seep out.	If you know you've removed...        read full caption If you know you've removed all of the air from the system, take the plug completely off.
With the mounting bolts loose,...        read full caption With the mounting bolts loose, as well as the cylinder hoses, the heavy pump was removed.	The air stem that lets you...        read full caption The air stem that lets you feed the air into the tank was now ready to be taken off from the tank.	The tank was ready to be removed...        read full caption The tank was ready to be removed from the aluminum block and was removed like any other regular tank would be.
The old hydraulic oil was...        read full caption The old hydraulic oil was removed and taken to recycle.	Here's a look at the piston...        read full caption Here's a look at the piston inside the tank that was ready to be removed.	Even though you don't need...        read full caption Even though you don't need to remove the piston out of the tank to change out the pump head, we wanted to show you how to safely remove it from the tank.
Having the plug off the tank...        read full caption Having the plug off the tank will allow the piston to travel down and allow the pressure to escape from the fill hole.	The air plug was covered to...        read full caption The air plug was covered to keep the air from escaping.	Herman used a small amount...        read full caption Herman used a small amount of air to push out the cylinder.
Once you see the edge of the...        read full caption Once you see the edge of the piston you should be able to grab and remove.	When you do this step, make...        read full caption When you do this step, make sure to remove the fill plug so you don't have the air holding the piston in place by air suction.	To help the piston go on easier,...        read full caption To help the piston go on easier, the O-rings were lubed with a touch of oil to help the piston slide on.