is the cylinder of a foot pump supposed to be oiled, greased, or simply
run dry? I just took mine apart to beef up the worn-out plate through
which the plunger shaft runs, and it was completely caked with yuck
inside (a mixture of years of dirt and who-knows-what).

I cleaned it all up, but I'm not sure what if anything it should be lubed
with.

cheers

Jules

In article ,
Jules Richardson writes:

is the cylinder of a foot pump supposed to be oiled, greased, or simply
run dry? I just took mine apart to beef up the worn-out plate through
which the plunger shaft runs, and it was completely caked with yuck
inside (a mixture of years of dirt and who-knows-what).

I cleaned it all up, but I'm not sure what if anything it should be lubed
with.

Neither was I. I happened to have a jar of silicone lubrication for
assembling plastic gutters and push-fit pipe, and so I used that.
That was 5 years ago, and it's worked perfectly ever since.

I guess you need to avoid lubricants which attack rubber, as some
will probably get into the tyre inner tubes.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:51:35 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
Jules Richardson writes:

is the cylinder of a foot pump supposed to be oiled, greased, or simply
run dry? I just took mine apart to beef up the worn-out plate through
which the plunger shaft runs, and it was completely caked with yuck
inside (a mixture of years of dirt and who-knows-what).

I cleaned it all up, but I'm not sure what if anything it should be
lubed with.

Neither was I. I happened to have a jar of silicone lubrication for
assembling plastic gutters and push-fit pipe, and so I used that. That
was 5 years ago, and it's worked perfectly ever since.

Thanks... I gave it a little multi-purpose grease, and will see how that
goes. I only use the pump* on one of the lawn tractor's tyres which has a
slow puncture, so it's probably no big deal; worst case it trashes a tyre
that already had problems anyway.

* I'll get the tuits together and fix my compressor at some point! :-)

Oh, for the end-plate I drilled and bolted a 1.8" thick washer to it
which had just the right diameter hole in the middle for the plunger
shaft. Seems to be working like a charm - before that there was so much
wear in the end-plate that the pump used to jam partway upon release.
Cheapo Chinese junk...

cheers

Jules

On Apr 9, 7:34*pm, Jules Richardson
wrote:
On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:51:35 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
* *Jules Richardson writes:

is the cylinder of a foot pump supposed to be oiled, greased, or simply
run dry? I just took mine apart to beef up the worn-out plate through
which the plunger shaft runs, and it was completely caked with yuck
inside (a mixture of years of dirt and who-knows-what).

I cleaned it all up, but I'm not sure what if anything it should be
lubed with.

Neither was I. I happened to have a jar of silicone lubrication for
assembling plastic gutters and push-fit pipe, and so I used that. That
was 5 years ago, and it's worked perfectly ever since.

Thanks... I gave it a little multi-purpose grease, and will see how that
goes. I only use the pump* on one of the lawn tractor's tyres which has a
slow puncture, so it's probably no big deal; worst case it trashes a tyre
that already had problems anyway.

* I'll get the tuits together and fix my compressor at some point! :-)

Oh, for the end-plate I drilled and bolted a 1.8" thick washer to it
which had just the right diameter hole in the middle for the plunger
shaft. Seems to be working like a charm - before that there was so much
wear in the end-plate that the pump used to jam partway upon release.
Cheapo Chinese junk...

cheers

Jules

maybe the tyre's repairable with a bit of offcut inner tube plus
rubber cement. Coat the tube well all over, and push it most of the
way into the hole with a tool. Let set & trim.


NT

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:30:15 -0700, NT wrote:
maybe the tyre's repairable with a bit of offcut inner tube plus rubber
cement. Coat the tube well all over, and push it most of the way into
the hole with a tool. Let set & trim.

TBH, I've not checked it to see where the leak is - so I don't actually
know if it's a puncture or a beading problem.

I might motivate myself to look at it this year, although the wheel's
jammed onto the axle rather well (I even had a brief go at it when I had
the whole axle off to do some work on the reversing gear last year). I
suppose I could improvise some kind of puller though.

Or I could just get a tube for it - the local farm supply place does them
(I'm pretty sure it's tubeless, although I suppose it might have a tube
in there...)

cheers

Jules

"Jules Richardson" wrote in message
...

is the cylinder of a foot pump supposed to be oiled, greased, or simply
run dry? I just took mine apart to beef up the worn-out plate through
which the plunger shaft runs, and it was completely caked with yuck
inside (a mixture of years of dirt and who-knows-what).

I cleaned it all up, but I'm not sure what if anything it should be lubed
with.

cheers

Jules

Used to be graphite grease in my old dirty pushbike pump using days.

The leather still wore out fairly quickly though.

Still, could be worse: Brunel almost had a pneumatic railway working, but
for the lack of modern sealing materials and lubricants that wouldn't freeze
or get eaten,,,

S