tire pressure gauge maintenance

None that I can think of and I think because there are no real moving parts the digital will hold their zero better than a mechanical. JMO of course.

Roger Marble has several posts on his RVtiresafety.comRVtiresafety.com blog (scroll down) which I thought were interesting. I wonder where you could go to test the accuracy of a gauge?

I have a couple of mech. gauges and a digital one which are all pretty close. Our TPMS sensors are a different matter and all read a couple of psi lower than the gauges which is a bit annoying but that's just the way they are. It would be nice though to get a gauge tested so you accurately know what your tire pressures are.

Is there any reason to use a mechanical gauge anymore over a digital one?

brirene wrote:
I'm hopeful someone can find the article as well. I bought a "good", heavy duty gauge a couple of years ago when a truck stop closed. It has the pressure relief button, supposed to hold the reading until manually released. It no longer holds the pressure, and I'm hopeful its just an adjustment vs. trashed. Only used it a few times and still stored in its original packaging.

I set this aside and forgot about it until last week. Had a can of 3in1 oil and just put a few drops over the holes in the pressure relief valve, while working the button. Set it aside for a couple days, and it now holds pressure. Thanks for the suggestions on this thread!

Nice blow-up of an air gauge. Thanks.

I disassembled one of them:

While there are 15 parts, it really is a simple tool with no adjustments. Air enters through 2a or 2b, pushing the little rubber ball 4 to seal off the other entrance. Air pressure flows through the lower barrel 5 and the pinhole plastic end 14 into the upper barrel 6 where it pushes on the seal 9 which pushes against the spring and the scale.

The rubber parts 3a and 3b make a seal between the gauge and the tire valve stem. They look very close to some domestic tap rubbers, which might do for replacements. What can we do to keep rubber flexible?
The seal (9) that rubs the upper barrel as it pushes the spring also needs to be flexible.

There are little dents in the upper barrel, which impedes the movement of the spring and that's what killed this gauge. I put the little rubber ball in the other one and now it works very will, indicating the same pressure as my new one, which I do check with the tire shop occasionally.

Maintenance would mostly be cleaning the spring and upper barrel and oiling them. I used a light silicone oil, which seems to work very well. Careful opening the inlets to the lower barrel; it is very easy to lose the little rubber ball which I probably did. Lucky I had a spare.

brirene wrote:
I'm hopeful someone can find the article as well. I bought a "good", heavy duty gauge a couple of years ago when a truck stop closed. It has the pressure relief button, supposed to hold the reading until manually released. It no longer holds the pressure, and I'm hopeful its just an adjustment vs. trashed. Only used it a few times and still stored in its original packaging.

I'd take the button apart and lube up the valve stop. I would imagine the rubber has dried up and not sealing all the way.

I've got about 6 or 7 of the digital jobbies, and I figure if most of them agree, I'm good. And my dually gauge is analog since I haven't felt like spending the money for a digital one.

No matter what you do to any gauge, if you can't have a calibrated master gauge for comparison, you still don't know if its reading correctly.

Jim

I'm hopeful someone can find the article as well. I bought a "good", heavy duty gauge a couple of years ago when a truck stop closed. It has the pressure relief button, supposed to hold the reading until manually released. It no longer holds the pressure, and I'm hopeful its just an adjustment vs. trashed. Only used it a few times and still stored in its original packaging.

I also have a "truck" gauge that I bought in the early 60's. Over the years I have periodically put a couple drops of pneumatic oil in the end. I don't know if it helped but it still is accurate.