Puma Compressor Mounted in the Rear Qtr Panel with Pics

[Darasick]

So I looked high and low on the forums(Mud, Overland, and some J**p) for someone who removed the Puma NCPD-1006 12V compressor from the tank and modified it in some way to fit in a small space, and never could come up with anything. So, I tore into it the other day. My end goal was to have the compressor mounted in the rear quarter panel and the tank mounted under the truck. After removing the compressor and test fitting it in the passenger rear quarter panel, it was apparent that some clearancing was necessary if I wanted the panel to go back on to retain the factory look. I wanted the pump head in the general area that the storage box was, so that I could remove the door to cool things down in there while I was airing up my 37’s.
First I drilled out the plastic welds on the panel storage box and removed it.

 

[Darasick]

Then I removed the cylinder head from the pump and clocked it 90 degrees so that the exhaust or output was facing the rear of the pump. I removed the paint from the gasket with brush on a Dremel. I guess I could have pried the gasket off and clocked it as well, but I didn’t. This is a good time to run a tap through the 3/8” NPT (F) output. I shoved part of a shop towel in it to catch the cuttings and then fished it out with a pick when I was done. I also blew air threw it from the exhaust port out through the 3/8” fitting to try to clean it up some more.

 

[Darasick]

I then removed the fan shroud and turned it so the flat section of the shroud would be flush against the rear quarter panel BODY panel. I punched and drilled new holes in the shroud to hold it in place. The holes were approximately 1.5” from their original position. The picture below is horrible. Let me know if anyone needs a better one.

 

[Darasick]

At this point the only thing left to clearance was the pump base, so I broke out the cutting wheel and cut off the sections that hung out past the motor body. This left more than enough of the mounting holes to still bolt the pump to the bracket.

 

[Darasick]

I then made brackets to mount the pump to the fender well and a bracket to mount the manifolds to the pump bracket. The pump bracket is welded to the fender well and the manifold bracket is bolted to the pump bracket.

 

[Darasick]

I chose to use Viair’s plumbing and wiring diagrams as guidance. If you try this, I strongly suggest going buy the NPT tap and die set from Harbor Freight for $15. It comes with Male and Female 1/2”, 3/8”, and 1/4” NPT taps and dies. All of the threads on the pump and tank will need to be chased. The thread connections are as follows:
Pump output - 3/8” NPT (F)
Tank – 1/2” NPT (F), 1/4” NPT (M), 1/8” NPT (F), and I left the drain in
This is what my plumbing diagram looked like (Yours may vary). The items in green are supplied with the pump and the majority of the rest was sourced from Mcmaster Carr. I used Viair sealed pressure switch (PN 90217 – 110/145 psi)

 

[Darasick]

I have air lockers and I wanted to monitor the pressures on both the tank and the lockers from my driver seat. These are Viair 1.5” gauges.

 

[Darasick]

At the time I had the entire interior out to weld the roof rack holes, install sound deadener and clean the carpets, so it made this a lot easier to jump into. I hope this helps. This is what the end product looks like with the panel in place and the cover off to let the head breathe.

 

[stonemasoncruiser]

That's a great idea! Nice work, hope you don't mind copy cats.

 

[Darasick]

Copy on, that's why I posted it. Just giving back to a forum that has given a ton to me!

 

[TYM4FUN]

Very nice man!!!!

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

NIce!
Any vibs from the fan shroud / body?

 

[Darasick]

Very nice man!!!!

Thanks!

NIce!
Any vibs from the fan shroud / body?

It was a concern of mine as well Phil, but I haven't been able to hear any yet. I'm not sure if it matters, but I did put a layer of sound deadened between the shroud and the body.

 

[1973Guppie]

nice clean work man, looks great.

this is helpful as one of my future projects is to mount a viaair pump back there on one side and run the tank underneath. I sourced some computer fans to mount on one sides that I am going to wire into the inverter back there. I am guessing I will have plenty of heat between the inverter and the air pump.

Noah

 

[Tapage]

some nice job on it ... wonder if can be done with a smaller ( diameter ) hose ?

 

[Darasick]

I sourced some computer fans to mount on one sides that I am going to wire into the inverter back there. I am guessing I will have plenty of heat between the inverter and the air pump. Noah

Thank you sir. I have a 6.5" fan that I was going to mount in the old speaker vent, but ran out of room with my locker manifold.

some nice job on it ... wonder if can be done with a smaller ( diameter ) hose ?

Sure it can. I bought the manifolds from McMaster so I had to deal with their threads and didn't want a plethora of adapters and bushings and wanted to negate as many leak paths as I could. Hence the larger hose. The hose coming out of the pump head will be changed to a 3/8", I just threw that 1/4" on to make a wheeling trip.

 

[ericbirk]

Awesome! Thanks for the write up. Mine its on its way up right now.

 

[TYM4FUN]

darasick, do you have pics of your tank mounted?

 

[Darasick]

darasick, do you have pics of your tank mounted?

Currently I have it strapped to my rear winch plate on the 4x4 labs bumper. The end goal is to mount it to the Metal Tech accessory mount on the sliders which I have yet to order. I'll update the thread when it see's it's final resting place and I get the wiring sorted out. I can take a picture of it now, but it would make the thread pretty ugly!

 

[TYM4FUN]

Thank you.