Winn Control

[John Padmore]

Can someone tell me what the Schrader valve is used for on the top of this unit?

[Gerald Farris]

John,
The Schrader valve that you are referring to has little or no use in the application that it is used in on a Beaver. In an application were a transfer pump is used before the Racor filter housing (Beaver does not use one), the Schrader valve can be used to check pressure or bleed air. However, on a Beaver the only possible use for the valve is to bleed air, but this will only work if you have a full fuel tank because you will be using gravity instead of pressure to purge the air.

Gerald  

[John Padmore]

Thanks, that clears it up.

John

[Edward Buker]

Gerald,

Do you remember how your control unit is wired? Do you have to be in rear run and ignition on to be able to activate it? I am not sure that I remember this correctly....

Later Ed

[Gerald Farris]

Ed,
The electric control for my Winn water separator and primary filter is wired so that it is hot at all times.

Gerald

[Edward Buker]

Thanks Gerald, I will have a peek at mine when I get a chance. I probably remembered it wrong. We headed south from just north of Seattle through Portland today to the McMinville OR area. The traffic was not the best, glad I do not have to drive the RV through that nightmare everyday.

Later Ed

[John Padmore]

Well, I never found a fuse or circuit breaker for the unit so I assume the unit is defective. Left with no way to purge water from the bottom of the filter I came up with this solution. Took the hose from where the Winn would discharge the water/fuel mixture attached it to a pet cock valve and ran a new purge line outside of the bay. Now to purge any water I simply put a container under the hose, open the pet cock and push the Schrader valve and the water/fuel mix flows right out.

John

[Edward Buker]

John,

I am not so sure that is a good idea. As you drain the bottom using the valve with the Schrader open, I think air would be pulled in the Schrader valve as the fuel and or water drains out of the bottom. Getting air in the filter with no pump to purge it could get the injection system air bound. The existing pump was there to bring in fuel as you drained water off and to purge air out of both filters using the top fittings like the Schrader and a 1/4 inch plug in the Cat fuel filter housing. Once the air was cleared using the Winn pump you could then start the engine. At some point one way or another you will need a fuel pump of some kind to purge the filters of air. The drain system that you added could probably be used with the engine running and no opening of the Schrader as long as you find some pressure forcing fuel out when you open it. Get a second opinion before doing that, I am not completely sure if there is a pump pre the filters but I think that is true.

Later Ed

[Edward Buker]

John,

I did not mean to imply that there is anything wrong with your drain system with the added hardware. It does have to be air tight given you do not want any air to get into the system. It is just that bleeding with the procedure you mentioned could allow air to enter and without an operation purge pump that is a concern. It would seem that measuring for 12V on the wire that goes into the control box comes next and see if it has power. If not you could get power from the battery area and test it to see if it works.

Later Ed

[Joel Weiss]

Not that you're looking to spend money, but I did have a talk with my CAT dealer about the cost of taking out the Racor filter system entirely and replacing it with a CAT filter with priming pump.  He figured roughly that I was talking about ~$700 in parts plus labor.  Not that there's anything fundamentally wrong with the Racor, but the filters are a bit harder to come by.  They're readily available through marine supply places, but not as common at truck centers.  CAT filters (or their generic equivalents) are easy to obtain.