An air impact wrench is a tool that should never miss from your home or workshop. With it by your side, you should expect little trouble when it comes to dealing with tight and rusted bolts. The tool is relatively easy to handle, and its outstanding aspect is that it does not require you to use a lot of energy.
Like any other tool that you may have, an impact wrench requires regular maintenance to remain effective and safe to use for the longest time. One maintenance practice is oiling, and beginners may be confused about how to go about this process.
If you want to know how to oil an impact wrench properly, you are in the right place, as this piece will teach you just that.
Walk with us.
Importance of Oiling an Impact Wrench
Before we embark on showing you how to oil your air impact wrench, it is vital that you first understand why you are doing so. When you buy the tool, it comes oiled, but with time, the inside jams up due to the lubricant drying up.
The rotating parts that help loosen and tighten nuts have to be lubricated to deliver a smooth and flawless performance. So, if you skip this practice, your tool will be useless over time, plus it will produce a lot of unpleasant sounds.
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The Parts of an Impact Wrench that Need Oiling
It is also important that you know which parts of the machine need to be reached by the oil so that you can pay proper attention during the entire process. This way, you would do the work properly and ensure that all parts of the machine are adequately protected.
There are two main parts of an impact wrench that need oiling, and they are:
The Motor
To oil this part adequately, you will need an air tool easily available from air impact gun manufacturers.
The Rotating Hammer
This is the part that drives the force from the air motor to the anvil. Ensure that you use motor oil of the appropriate weight for this job, such as Castrol SAE 30 oil.
Things to Keep in Mind Before you Start Oiling your Impact Wrench
There are several pointers that you should have on your fingertips as you prepare to oil your machine. First, you should have everything you need for the task (ingredients) close by, as this will help you save time and get the job done faster.
You should also ensure to clean up your impact wrench beforehand; otherwise, the oiling process would be a waste of time and energy while the dirt may end up damaging your tool in the long run.
Luckily for you, the cleaning is not complicated at all, and you can do it yourself within the shortest time.
Let’s now head over to the oiling of the impact wrench.
Ingredients for Oiling the Air Impact Wrench
We shall start by checking out the exact ingredients that you will need for both cleansing and oiling processes.
- An older impact wrench would be needed for the cleaning process
- Air tool oil for the oiling. However, you are free to use a substitute such as hydraulic oil, Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF), or synthetic oil
- Motor oil: weight-30 of the brand of your choice
- Petrol or any other spirit for cleansing
- Punch tool
- Align key
- Compressed air supply
- Hammer
With all the ingredients in place, let’s start with a step-by-step demonstration of the cleansing process.
Cleaning the Impact Wrench
The following steps show how you can clean your device to the letter, and it will help prevent tool damage from the inside. Here they are:
- Start by removing the rubber jacket from the impact wrench followed by the tool’s backplate, which should be now more visible
- Next, remove the tool’s alignment rod and then use the hammer and punch tool to remove the back bearing
- After that, remove the air motor and the vanes, keeping in mind that the vanes need a thorough cleaning before oiling later on
- Finish with the tool’s airside by removing the air motor housing and the front bearings
- The next step involves removing the anvil and the hammer assembly, whereby you need to push the anvil from the front to separate the two
- Lastly, a screwdriver will be your handy companion in opening up the gasket with the intention of removing the hammer and anvil
Now that you have completely disassembled the tool use a spirit such as petrol to clean out the junk. Ensure that you remove any solidified oil or metal chips that you may find within the system.
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Assembling the Unit
After cleaning all the parts, follow the steps below to put the pieces back together. Here they are:
1. The first step should involve attaching the anvil with the hammer, and the gasket may help you out here
2. The next part should be the hammer assembly followed by the air motor casing. After that, assemble the back bearing by putting it back and then use the align rod for aligning
3. Lastly, fix the backplate in place, place the gasket on before tightening the nuts appropriately
When you complete the assembling back, you are done with the cleaning process. We shall now head to the final part of oiling the machine.
Oiling the Impact Wrench: 4 Easy Steps
This is the step where we insert oil into the machine, and we can confidently tell you that the procedure is not as complicated as the first two steps. However, you need to be careful and take your time so that you do not miss any vital steps.
Here are the steps:
1. Start by carefully removing the oil plug nut and then locate the oil port and insert about 1oz of motor oil. Place the oil inside the tool’s air port, and you should use a syringe to make the process as accurate as possible
2. After lubricating the air motor, you should now embark on evenly distributing the oil within the tool. Here, you should run the wrench for between thirty seconds to a minute after putting in the oil. This helps in ensuring that the oil reaches every part of the device properly
3. The next step is about draining the excess oil. This step involves plugging once more and then draining the surplus oil from the machine. With that, you will have completed the whole oiling process of your impact wrench
4. Finally, put on the rubber jacket so that your tool may look as if it just arrived from the shops. And you can now expect your tool to work as smoothly as possible
What is the Ideal Frequency of Oiling My Impact Wrench?
It all depends on your frequency of using the device. If you are a regular user, you should oil the machine after eight hours of use while there is no harm in cleaning the device after every use. In the end, your tool will run smoothly and will be free of junks that often interfere with its operation.
Closing Remark
We hope that the process of oiling your impact wrench is no longer as mysterious as it seemed at the beginning. It is something that you could do by yourself without requiring the services of a professional, and it will help extend your machine’s useful life. If you have grasped every detail spelled out in our article, we believe you will get every step right next time you have to oil your machine.