Okay all, I did a cursory search, and ended up buying the drier for the Hitachi compressor in my 2006. I thought it had the AMK; I was wrong.

So I ordered Part No.VUB504700. For those that have gone this route, does this part come with the desiccant inside as well? It looks like it's an entire assembly all sealed up so I assume it's "yes" but just want to ask.

Thanks,
Houm

 

If its OEM, it will be loaded. Aftermarket, likely but I have seen two that were just shells - me thinks they hope people don't open and look inside. Those two were apparently bought via Aliexpress.

 

Thank you. Based on it being from Hitachi, sold by Atlantic British and the price...I'm thinking it's got the beads in it!

 

Having just had the drier fail, I considered the Hitachi replacement from AB. After seeing the price, I decided to roll that money in to a new Dunlop compressor since I do not know the precise age of the one I have now.

 

That's fair; I just decided I want to try and keep the ol' Hitachi going for as long as I can. At this point, I just hope that I have this issue diagnosed correctly and that this part R&R addresses the "pressure not decreasing" problem that I'm having.

 

Had the drier replaced and haven't had a fault in three days. Also the compressor seems quiet and doesn't always run on startup, which it seemed to do prior. So I feel like this is a win!

I took the old drier apart. There was white powder, and when I removed that metal plate the desiccant didn't look bad to me but some of it was saturated for sure. I guess I don't know what it's supposed to look like.

I'll upload some pics.

 

The powder is the desiccant breaking down and clogging the filter and that perforated metal plate, the compressor i have fitted now i got as a freebie that the owner put a rebuild kit thru but didn't clean that plate.
I cleaned it out and baked the desiccant in the oven and its been good for nearly 2 years, i rebuilt my original hitachi and it sits under the back seat as a backup.

 

...I knew what the powder was. My real question is how much powder indicates there is a problem? How much discolored (saturated) desiccant is indicative of a problem? I have no basis of comparison.

 

Majority of it looks ok but doesn't take much to block the filters or migrate down the lines into a valve block.

 

I almost want to say that the descent maybe was quickly replaced at one point. It looks good, yet that is a decent amount of powder considering how it looks. Usually when I see powder it all looks like crap.