Make your own smoke machine!! Well my Lincoln Navigator has been giving me alot of problems, the main one being now, a leak somewhere in the vacuum system, and crap does this thing have some vacuum hoses!!! well I checked into having it hooked to a smoke machine, a very good way of finding leaks, $40.00 just to have it hooked up!! thats not even fixing the vacuum leaks, well that ain't gonna happen...as you all know I am a D.J. so naturally I have a fog machine,being inventive and trying to save money, I took that fog machine and hooked a heater hose to it, put the other end of the hose on the PCV valve (it fit perfectly) and smoke tested my own way, sure enough I found the leak and am about to leave to get the part but I was so excited I just had to tell ya'll about it before I left.......great way to find leaks in the vacuum system!! AND CHEAPER TOO!!!
I have a fog machine...and it only works about half the time. I bought it used. Know anything about fog machines? Is there much maintenance to them? How can I get this bad boy working better?
Yeah Craig, I know ouite a bit about fog machines as I bought mine used also, and of course it didn't work very well, this morning as I tried mine out it had a very weak output of fog, I took a wire and slid it into the tiny opening of the nozzle after it was heated up (if you do this be careful it is VERY hot) and it started putting out fog like it should, it it's not fogging at all the tiny hose inside from the tank to the heater has prolly got a hole in it and is sucking air instead of fog juice, or can you hear a pump running when you try to make it fog? you should, if not toss it, if it's the tiny hose, I had to get mine from a truck (freightliner) dealer, the small hose for the air brakes will fit or even air hose from some airshocks will work just fine, mine puts out fog like crazy once I stuck that wire strand in the nozzle, that fog juice will gum up the nozzle after it sits for a bit. Fog machines are basically a tank for juice, a pump and hose/line to pump the juice into a heating element with a nozzle and ya get fog, kind of simple, mostly the hose or pump goes bad, let me know what you find on yours as far as what may be the problem.
It is a Radio Shack unit I bought used. Didn't have a controller for it, so I bought one off of ebay for a different style of fogger. I had to cut the plug end of the controller just a little bit in order to get it to plug into the back of the Radio Shack fogger. When I hit the button.....I can hear a pump kicking on. Doesn't really fog when I hit the button. About 10 to 20 seconds later....it will put out a blast of fog. Some blasts are better than others. Very intermmitten on whether it is going to work or not. I would say it has been sitting for years. I will look at some of the things you mention and see what I can find. Thanks for the help.
No problem Craig, hope I can help out...I have a 12' X 7' equipment trailer full of stuff I hardly use anymore, I have lights of every kind in there that dance to the music, I have lasers, mirror ball (old fashioned one) and an updated mirror ball type called a starlight, seven pair of speakers, three amps, mixers and all sorts of DMX light controllers, just waiting for that one huge party so I can use it all again, I did a prom a few years ago and blew them away with sound and lights, I even have a projector and screen for the light show or for running a picture CD on, I hope 2012 is better for parties than 2011 was, I was just glad to find a use for the old fogger lol.
The thing is it isnt always a leak..... what part was leaking.....if it was coming out of the vent at one of the solenoids....it is supposed to do that until the computer energizes it to open or close it......that is why you need a can enabled scan tool to turn all those things on and off and some you just have to pinch hoses tight to bypass some of the aforementioned valves....
