[[REPACK] [ Free Fire ]
Julieann Rohde
The 3/4" Cla-Val Model 55L is a UL Listed and FM approved direct acting, spring loaded, diaphragm type pressure relief valve which can be installed in any position and is designed to open and close within very close pressure limits.
The 3/4" Cla-Val Model 55L-60 is a UL Listed, FM approved direct acting, spring loaded, diaphragm type pressure relief valve which can be installed in any position and is designed to open and close within very close pressure limits.
Seal piping provides additional coolant water to the packing and shaft of the fire pump. The Water is injected from the upper pump casing directly into the lantern ring or seal cage to provide additional coolant water when necessary so as to not have the pump over heat.
Our SPP Horizontal Split Case Fire Pump Repack Kits include all the items that are typically replaced during the routine repacking of these pump. Additional replacement parts may be available by request.
Pump professionals see various levels of maintenance performed during travels. This ranges from a pristine fire pump room with detailed maintenance plans and records to a facility where the run hours on the fire pump reflect only the initial startup. It creates an interesting challenge that requires continuous training and promotion to get some people to take maintenance of life safety equipment seriously.
A commonly misunderstood aspect of fire pump maintenance is the maintenance and adjustment of the pump packing seals. This includes details on why packing is used, whether packing should leak, when packing should be replaced and the adjustment of packing over time.
The first questions of why packing is used on fire pumps and whether or not mechanical seals can be used as an alternate arise from time to time. The simple answer is no. The first consideration results from the fact that these pumps are life safety devices that should be Underwriters Laboratories (UL) listed and/or factory manual (FM) approved. Those standards require packing to be used as the sealing method.
A deeper explanation is that mechanical seals tend to have a failure mode that results in the pump being inoperable. In a life safety system, this is not acceptable. Packing tends to fail over time and in a worst-case scenario, a packed pump could still provide a degree of fire protection.
The next important topic is managing to keep the packing at that happy medium where it drips approximately a drop per second and does not spray all over the pump room. When a new pump is installed, this can require continued adjustment as the packing swells and wears initially. The best time to accomplish this is during the weekly or monthly maintenance runs as recommended in National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 25. Packing is best adjusted while a pump is running to find a balance between leakage and temperature. It remains a maintenance task that requires observation and judgment over the life of the pump. At some point, adjustment of the packing will no longer be possible and at that time, maintenance should be performed.
One of the most common styles of pumps in use as fire pumps is a horizontal split case pump. The typical construction of these pumps can vary between manufacturers and these variances can determine which method is used to repack a pump. An accepted method of repacking a horizontal split case pump requires the removal of the top half of the pump case. The removal of this component allows for a more complete view of the internal components of the pump and affords ample access to the stuffing box area where the packing rings are installed. This is dependent on the manufacturer as there can be some internal construction differences. When the top of the pump is removed, the impeller can be viewed to see if it is experiencing abnormal wear and centered properly. The shaft sleeves can be inspected for wear as they can be a cause of packing that is no longer adjustable. This method also makes the removal and install of the packing rings, and lantern rings when present, easier.
Most manufacturers provide kits for repacking fire pumps. These kits can also include hardware for the glands that compress the packing. This is a good time to replace those components as needed. When inspecting and maintaining fire pumps, it is a common practice to apply a spray-on oil to the gland hardware as the proximity of moisture to these components can corrode them and create issues with future maintenance. After the pump is properly repacked and reassembled, it needs to be run in order to adjust the packing and verify proper operation as detailed in NFPA 25. The final adjustment of packing rings happens over time as the packing swells and wears. The routine maintenance runs afford this opportunity. If routine maintenance runs of fire pumps are not accomplished, repeat trips to repack pumps will likely occur in greater frequency. Maintenance instructions will vary between manufacturers and specific installation and operation manuals should be consulted.
Looking back from the perspective of the 21st Century, there is no reasonable explanation for the fact that the Repack Downhill "clunker" race managed to take place for four years from 1976 to 1979. It came back for two encores in 1983 and 1984 as NORBA-sanctioned races, the first ever sanctioned downhill races in the history of mountain bike competition. The last Repack race saw 95 competitors, and attracted the type of attention that ended the event forever. Because it is such a departure from all previous forms of bicycle racing, I often wonder whether downhill racing would have become a sanctioned event had Repack not been recognized so early by NORBA.
The Repack Downhill, vertical skateboarding and BMX all began at roughly the same time, the mid-seventies, and these California expressions of exuberance are the origin of what are now called Extreme Sports, leading to the "X-Games."
We had a pretty good run. After working out the bugs in our timing system over the first few races, I promoted five or six races each year, with prizes and posters for the last couple of years, and no entry fees. Despite the facts that all the local off-roaders knew about the race and that several of the racers were firefighters, the authorities never caught on, and we never had to deal with any sort of official presence interfering with the races. There were a lot of cuts and bruises and probably a few concussions because helmets were not required and hardly ever used, but the worst injury I remember seeing was a broken arm, fortunately not mine.
I first saw what later became known as "Repack" from the back of a motorcycle driven by Fred Wolf in 1973, poaching fire roads. He had found a very steep road that we drove up during an exploration trip that took place before all fire roads were closed to vehicles. Or maybe a little while after they were closed. Some time later, Fred and I and Peggy Madigan spent a long day with our coaster-brake one-speeds, pushing them up the supersteep hill and coming down by a different route.
In the early seventies, my roommate Gary Fisher and I were both road cyclists, equipped with the best Italian road race bikes, but these were not very practical for local transportation, so we had put together a couple of old one-speeds for use running errands. We were both members of Velo-Club Tamalpais, and a contingent of club members such as Joe Breeze, Otis Guy and Marc Vendetti also took up using old one speeds for town bikes. With the example of the Larkspur Canyon Gang and their longtime practice of bombing down Mount Tamalpais, it wasn't long before we started hitting a few of the trails and fire roads around Fairfax.
In 1974 a half-dozen riders went on the first of what has become an annual ride, the Thanksgiving Day Appetite Seminar. The route we chose ended with a trip down Repack, and it was shortly afterward that someone applied the name that has become one of the most famous in mountain biking history. It's not a joke, it's just the truth. One trip down that hill put years of wear onto a coaster brake, and if you did not immediately disassemble it and repack all the bearings with grease, the hub would seize up very shortly afterward.
You couldn't use just any coaster brake either. All the kinetic energy of the descent is turned into heat, and the old brakes had no means of dissipating it from the relatively small surface area. The most common coaster brake found on old bikes is the New Departure. The reason they were so common was that they were the most cheaply made of the coaster brake hubs; they worked very well under ordinary conditions, but would explode halfway down Repack. Bendix brakes were good, as long as you found an old one, machined out of a solid piece of steel stock. The newer Bendix brakes were made in Mexico, and the stamped hubs were no comparison to the real thing from the 1930s. Mussleman brakes were pretty good, but the gold standard was the Morrow. You might even get away with a couple of trips down Repack with a Morrow before having to maintain it. Good luck finding a Morrow, though. I never had one of my own, and made do with a series of Mussleman and Bendix brakes. If you abused your coaster brake by riding off-road, you had to be familiar with the insides of it, because you had to tear it down a lot.
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