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General Topics/Tech TipsDiscussion on break in periods, rider comfort, seats and pad suggestions. Tech tips as they become available will be posted here.
Dan, that's a beauty of a tool. Not absolutely having to have one is what I was actually thinking anyway. Why couldn't you just use the compressor regulator dialed up to 90 lbs, make up a single hose with 13mm threads, and use that if all we really need to do after a compression test is listen for where the air is coming from. Focusing on particular numbers isn't really worth the cost of a decent tester for me if all I really need to do is find out where it's leaking and use my ears as a rough "close enough" gauge.
That's where I am leaning. Tired of buying expensive tools that I won't use much at my age going forward. And I do agree, the tester I was trying to use felt like cheap crap.
Question is directed towards the tool not the test. The test, and the moving TDC piston/valves, I get. Not really asking about that.
You get a tool delivered, you can't get it to zero out before you even attach to a cylinder. Trying a test with it results in bad results. A phone call to customer service results in another new tool delivered. You can't zero that one either. Another call to customer service, but they plainly don't know what to say or do about it. Did you get two bad tools, or are you the problem?
If I am the problem, then I want to know how to correct that. If I got two bad tools, then how can I trust a third one? And if I can't trust a third one, what other tool could I look at sub $100?
What do you mean you can't get the tools to zero out?
If you set the input to 100 psi without the hose attached to the coupling do you get 0 leak down. I assume the gauge looks like this..
Add: at what pressure on the inlet do you get 0 leak without the coupling attached to anything?
The instructions are screwed up.
set regulator to 7psi to 100psi. Never operate tool with more than 100psi inlet pressure or damage to the tool can result.
Red is plain stupid. It must have a crappy regulator.
Last edited by Max Headflow; Dec 6, 2025 at 05:49 PM.
I purchased a Lang CLT-2 leakdown tester on Amazon for about US$102.00. Seems like a nice tool, but I haven't actually used it yet.
The Lang one ain't much better.. Both gauges are 100 psi but the second one has a stupid label like the Performance tool one. The test in the vid is incorrect.. You really want to set the inlet pressure so that the output gauge reads 0 then mark the inlet pressure. Connect up the hose and look at the inlet pressure, if it drops set it back to where it was and read the leak off the second gauge.
The harbor freight tool is fine as long as the gauges are good, there are no leaks and the regulator works. You can check the gauges by setting the regulator to 0 with nothing on the coupling and running it up to 100 psi indicated on inlet. The outlet pressure should match. If so the tester is close.
On the HF, if you connect up the cylinder you calculate leak by A being the inlet pressure and B being the cylinder pressure..
"What do you mean you can't get the tools to zero out?"
I mean the right dial doesn't reach 0%."
"If you set the input to 100 psi without the hose attached to the coupling do you get 0 leak down."
No
"I assume the gauge looks like this.."
Exactly like that.
"Add: at what pressure on the inlet do you get 0 leak without the coupling attached to anything?"
Not sure. I did notice the leakage dial went closer to zero as the inlet pressure drops to half or less, something like that. I had lost all faith at that point so I didn't pursue it further.
Yes, the regulator is a POS, and I am over these Chinese BS tools. Had a main bearing puller strip out on the very first and only time I used it. Done.
So with the dial on the left set to the arrow the dial on the right did not read where the arrow is on it? What did it read? This assumes the tester output coupling is not hooked up to anything and is not leaking.
