The rebuild of this pump was overdue. It had completely eaten one reed valve. Those weren't too difficult to R&R.

The piston seals were a lot of fun. After fighting the first one for a good while I put one in the shop press and used just a *wee bit* of pressure on them to help form them into shape.
That made it much easier to get the sleeve installed onto the piston. After I figured that out the 2nd one went together no problem.

IIRC, this pump was a re-man when I bought it, and it has always made more noise than I thought it should.
Both of the rod bearings felt a little dry, and one of them had a sticky spot in the rotation, so I ran some Tri-Flow lube into both bearings.
That smoothed and quieted one of them, but it didn't help the one with the sticky spot. If anything, it made that one worse.
The pump will start and run with no load, but after I reconnected it to the diffuser and ran it a bit it doesn't have enough torque to restart.

I haven't checked availability of the rod/bearing assemblies yet. I'll replace both if I can get them, otherwise I'll need to buy a new pump.

Many thanks for the advice. It was helpful.

edit... Thinking more about when I bought the pump, it came from a company that was listed in the PB resource guide. I think maybe a fish farm up north? Doesn't seem to be in the current resource guide, or I'm just not smart enough to find it. lol

2nd edit... I found the Thomas web site... been chatting with the support team... replacement rods for my pump are NLA, but my old rods aren't damaged, they just need new bearings, which are available... so maybe I'll be able to salvage the pump after all.

Last edited by Augie; 06/08/26 01:10 PM.