We have an old banger for running around in, and I need to use my foot
pump more than I'd like on its rather old and rusty wheels.

Lately my pump *seems* (could be wrong) to have become less effective,
i.e. I seem to need more pumps per PSI injected.

Is there any kind of maintenance I could do on the pump? The cylinder
is welded closed, but I wondered what might happen if I (for example)
sprayed WD40 into it via the air intakes. For example would it
revitalise the valve in there? Obviously I could try it, but
maybe someone here has tried it before, and can advise Yes or No!

Cheers
J.

On 07/04/2014 14:33, Another John wrote:
We have an old banger for running around in, and I need to use my foot
pump more than I'd like on its rather old and rusty wheels.

Lately my pump *seems* (could be wrong) to have become less effective,
i.e. I seem to need more pumps per PSI injected.

Is there any kind of maintenance I could do on the pump? The cylinder
is welded closed, but I wondered what might happen if I (for example)
sprayed WD40 into it via the air intakes. For example would it
revitalise the valve in there? Obviously I could try it, but
maybe someone here has tried it before, and can advise Yes or No!

Cheers
J.

In the good old days these were very robustly made and could be
maintained. The main seal was greased leather. IME modern pumps are more
flimsy and it is usually the hose which gives out first, typically
leaking at the crimped joints.

If you are *sure* the hose is OK (leak test with soapy water spray?) it
could be the main piston seal. WD40 might let you do a quick check as
you describe but someone will be along in a minute telling you that
mineral oils are bad for rubber tyres. Silicone oil (as used for
lubricating plumbing fittings) would be OK, but not cheap.

You might find that one of those little electric pumps which you can
sometimes pick up for a fiver with a tank of petrol will meet your needs.

On Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:45:50 +0100, newshound
wrote:

If you are *sure* the hose is OK (leak test with soapy water spray?) it
could be the main piston seal. WD40 might let you do a quick check as
you describe but someone will be along in a minute telling you that
mineral oils are bad for rubber tyres. Silicone oil (as used for
lubricating plumbing fittings) would be OK, but not cheap.

Mineral oils are bad for rubber.

Now that that part is done: Grease or petroleum jelly/vaseline on the
leather.That wil stay there, the WD-40 will run off (and also evaporate
eventually). Open the pump, pull out the leather cup thing, dredge the gob of
grease out of the cup and spread it around the rim of the leather, reinstall the
leather with a twisting motion, and you're done (except for getting dirty grease
of your fingers and the new trousers you wore by mistake).


Thomas Prufer

On 07/04/2014 15:42, Thomas Prufer wrote:
On Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:45:50 +0100, newshound
wrote:

If you are *sure* the hose is OK (leak test with soapy water spray?) it
could be the main piston seal. WD40 might let you do a quick check as
you describe but someone will be along in a minute telling you that
mineral oils are bad for rubber tyres. Silicone oil (as used for
lubricating plumbing fittings) would be OK, but not cheap.

Mineral oils are bad for rubber.

Now that that part is done: Grease or petroleum jelly/vaseline on the
leather.That wil stay there, the WD-40 will run off (and also evaporate
eventually). Open the pump, pull out the leather cup thing, dredge the gob of
grease out of the cup and spread it around the rim of the leather, reinstall the
leather with a twisting motion, and you're done (except for getting dirty grease
of your fingers and the new trousers you wore by mistake).


Thomas Prufer

Except that as the OP pointed out, the cylinder is welded closed.

What a WD40 test tells you is whether the pump might be fixable (e.g. by
pouring in some expensive silicone) or whether it is ready for the
scrap-heap. The amount of mineral oil in a few sprays of WD40 is not
going to bother a tyre.

In article , newshound wrote:
On 07/04/2014 15:42, Thomas Prufer wrote:
On Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:45:50 +0100, newshound
wrote:

If you are *sure* the hose is OK (leak test with soapy water spray?) it
could be the main piston seal. WD40 might let you do a quick check as
you describe but someone will be along in a minute telling you that
mineral oils are bad for rubber tyres. Silicone oil (as used for
lubricating plumbing fittings) would be OK, but not cheap.

Mineral oils are bad for rubber.

Now that that part is done: Grease or petroleum jelly/vaseline on the
leather.That wil stay there, the WD-40 will run off (and also evaporate
eventually). Open the pump, pull out the leather cup thing, dredge the gob of
grease out of the cup and spread it around the rim of the leather, reinstall the
leather with a twisting motion, and you're done (except for getting dirty grease
of your fingers and the new trousers you wore by mistake).

Except that as the OP pointed out, the cylinder is welded closed.

And as someone else pointed out, seals _used to be_ greased leather.


What a WD40 test tells you is whether the pump might be fixable (e.g. by
pouring in some expensive silicone) or whether it is ready for the
scrap-heap. The amount of mineral oil in a few sprays of WD40 is not
going to bother a tyre.

On the other hand, if the problem is a rubber O-ring inside the pump that
is already perishing, a few sprays of WD-40 probably won't bother that
either, or they might push it over the edge.

On 07/04/2014 14:45, newshound wrote:
On 07/04/2014 14:33, Another John wrote:
We have an old banger for running around in, and I need to use my foot
pump more than I'd like on its rather old and rusty wheels.

Lately my pump *seems* (could be wrong) to have become less effective,
i.e. I seem to need more pumps per PSI injected.

Is there any kind of maintenance I could do on the pump? The cylinder
is welded closed, but I wondered what might happen if I (for example)
sprayed WD40 into it via the air intakes. For example would it
revitalise the valve in there? Obviously I could try it, but
maybe someone here has tried it before, and can advise Yes or No!

Cheers
J.

In the good old days these were very robustly made and could be
maintained. The main seal was greased leather. IME modern pumps are more
flimsy and it is usually the hose which gives out first, typically
leaking at the crimped joints.

If you are *sure* the hose is OK (leak test with soapy water spray?) it
could be the main piston seal. WD40 might let you do a quick check as
you describe but someone will be along in a minute telling you that
mineral oils are bad for rubber tyres. Silicone oil (as used for
lubricating plumbing fittings) would be OK, but not cheap.

You might find that one of those little electric pumps which you can
sometimes pick up for a fiver with a tank of petrol will meet your needs.

I bought one of those pumps which you plug into the cigarette lighter
socket, and its great, with no effort required to pump up the tyres.

On Mon, 07 Apr 2014 20:31:30 +0100, Bob H wrote:

I bought one of those pumps which you plug into the cigarette lighter
socket, and its great, with no effort required to pump up the tyres.

So did I when they first appeared on the market. Didn't take kindly
to the pumping up Discovery tyres, from 25 ish to 30 psi, exceeded
the duty cycle, over heated and died. 'twas only about a 2 cc
cylinder... It would have been alright with topping up ordinary sized
car tyres.

Now have a somewhat larger and fan cooled one more designed for the
truck market. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:
So did I when they first appeared on the market. Didn't take kindly
to the pumping up Discovery tyres, from 25 ish to 30 psi, exceeded
the duty cycle, over heated and died. 'twas only about a 2 cc
cylinder... It would have been alright with topping up ordinary sized
car tyres.

They're noisy and slow - take about 3-5 mins per tyre. They're also full of
plastic gears which are quite easy to strip.

Theo

Theo Markettos wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:
So did I when they first appeared on the market. Didn't take kindly
to the pumping up Discovery tyres, from 25 ish to 30 psi, exceeded
the duty cycle, over heated and died. 'twas only about a 2 cc
cylinder... It would have been alright with topping up ordinary sized
car tyres.

They're noisy and slow - take about 3-5 mins per tyre.

I have a pair of earplugs stored with mine. And there always things to
do in the garage with those minutes. Actually only 1-2 minutes for the
usual top-up.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

On 07/04/2014 22:00, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 07 Apr 2014 20:31:30 +0100, Bob H wrote:

I bought one of those pumps which you plug into the cigarette lighter
socket, and its great, with no effort required to pump up the tyres.

So did I when they first appeared on the market. Didn't take kindly
to the pumping up Discovery tyres, from 25 ish to 30 psi, exceeded
the duty cycle, over heated and died. 'twas only about a 2 cc
cylinder... It would have been alright with topping up ordinary sized
car tyres.

Same here. One from Costco. great for topping up a tyre, but when I took
all the van tyres up to 55 psi from 45 it managed 3 and just died on the
4th.
In fairness it does say something like maximum duty cycle 7 minutes then
cool for 20 minutes or thereabouts which obviously I ignored.

Now have a somewhat larger and fan cooled one more designed for the
truck market. B-)

I did consider rigging up a redundant diving cylinder to a tyre inflator
head/gauge but couldn't have kept it tucked away under passenger seat
like the tiddly costco inflator.

Pete@
--
http://www.GymRatZ.co.uk
Gym Equipment for the heaviest duty gyms

"www.GymRatZ.co.uk" wrote in message
...
On 07/04/2014 22:00, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 07 Apr 2014 20:31:30 +0100, Bob H wrote:

I bought one of those pumps which you plug into the cigarette lighter
socket, and its great, with no effort required to pump up the tyres.

So did I when they first appeared on the market. Didn't take kindly
to the pumping up Discovery tyres, from 25 ish to 30 psi, exceeded
the duty cycle, over heated and died. 'twas only about a 2 cc
cylinder... It would have been alright with topping up ordinary sized
car tyres.

Same here. One from Costco. great for topping up a tyre, but when I took
all the van tyres up to 55 psi from 45 it managed 3 and just died on the
4th.
In fairness it does say something like maximum duty cycle 7 minutes then
cool for 20 minutes or thereabouts which obviously I ignored.

Now have a somewhat larger and fan cooled one more designed for the
truck market. B-)

I did consider rigging up a redundant diving cylinder to a tyre inflator
head/gauge but couldn't have kept it tucked away under passenger seat
like the tiddly costco inflator.

I guess you cant use one of these on modern vehicles:

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/179374/194674.jpg

The good old spark plug inflator... remove a plug, screw the inflator end in
it's place, connect schrader valve to tyre, start engine and it chuggs away
on 3 cylinders (or 5, or 7 as they were a yank invention i believe)
inflating the tyre.

Apparently still used by the off road guys running simple engines in dune
buggies and sand rails, but a modern engine would go into limp home mode and
prolly not fire that cylinder again after the plug has been put back in,
whether it'd be injecting fuel whilst inflating i dunno, but if it did then
a fecked cat can be expected as well.

On 7 Apr 2014 21:20:32 GMT, Huge wrote:

Now have a somewhat larger and fan cooled one more designed for
the
truck market. B-)

That sounds like quite a good idea. What make is it?

Sealy
MAC2300

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilde...ViewProduct&pr
oductid=6960#tabs-1

But I don't think I paid that much for it. I didn't, Classic Car
World, Mar 2008, £46.28 all in.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 08/04/2014 22:36, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On 7 Apr 2014 21:20:32 GMT, Huge wrote:

Now have a somewhat larger and fan cooled one more designed for
the
truck market. B-)

That sounds like quite a good idea. What make is it?

Sealy
MAC2300

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilde...ViewProduct&pr
oductid=6960#tabs-1

But I don't think I paid that much for it. I didn't, Classic Car
World, Mar 2008, £46.28 all in.

I have just got one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

for my Renault Master horsebox, which lives on a site without mains
power and it is excellent. (55/65 psi 225-65R16 tyres).

On Monday, April 7, 2014 2:33:56 PM UTC+1, Another John wrote:
We have an old banger for running around in, and I need to use my foot
pump more than I'd like on its rather old and rusty wheels.
Lately my pump *seems* (could be wrong) to have become less effective,
i.e. I seem to need more pumps per PSI injected.
Is there any kind of maintenance I could do on the pump? The cylinder
is welded closed, but I wondered what might happen if I (for example)
sprayed WD40 into it via the air intakes. For example would it
revitalise the valve in there? Obviously I could try it, but
maybe someone here has tried it before, and can advise Yes or No!
Cheers
J.

WD40 is quite the wrong thing. A drop or 2 of oil into the pump often fixes it. Very little of it ever gets out into the tyre, and driving over engine oil doesnt do a tyre any significant harm.


NT