Got the pump rebuild finished and everything works great thanks to those on this board who helped. Here are a few tips I learned.
Getting the valve plate out was difficult due to the small area available to drive my drift against. I had to re grind my drift several times to get a sharp enough edge to bear against the small area to drive it against. The only thing that holds the plate in is the gasket beneath it which gets sticky.
Removing the valve seats was easy once I figured out how. I ground a screw head to a diameter that would clear the hole in the pump body and yet stop against the seat from the bottom. Then it is easily driven out with a small diameter drift or even a nail instead. Driving the new ones in was done with a 7/16 bolt ground to use as a drift. I found a bolt that had its threads cut instead of rolled had a shank diameter just the right size.
Everything else is pretty easy. The 2 square cut o-rings cost me another $17 with shipping which is ridiculous. I don't see why any o-ring would suffice for the suction side which is the main problem I had losing prime. Surely one of you guru's on this board could come up with a substitute seal for the suction side. I bet most of the problems with these pumps is this suction seal ring. In fact I would say when you lose prime and the lift quits, the first and easiest thing to do is to remove the pump and replace the suction seal ring. I bet that would solve a lot of problems. Once you lose prime and get air in the system, the lift won't do much. Mine would not lift the brush hog at all! After the pump rebuild, you don't need to prime the system, just leave out the bleed plug and it primes immediately on start up and you quickly shut it off and install the bleed screw. Then you have to work the lift many times to purge the air. Hope this helps others here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Getting the valve plate out was difficult due to the small area available to drive my drift against. I had to re grind my drift several times to get a sharp enough edge to bear against the small area to drive it against. The only thing that holds the plate in is the gasket beneath it which gets sticky.
Removing the valve seats was easy once I figured out how. I ground a screw head to a diameter that would clear the hole in the pump body and yet stop against the seat from the bottom. Then it is easily driven out with a small diameter drift or even a nail instead. Driving the new ones in was done with a 7/16 bolt ground to use as a drift. I found a bolt that had its threads cut instead of rolled had a shank diameter just the right size.
Everything else is pretty easy. The 2 square cut o-rings cost me another $17 with shipping which is ridiculous. I don't see why any o-ring would suffice for the suction side which is the main problem I had losing prime. Surely one of you guru's on this board could come up with a substitute seal for the suction side. I bet most of the problems with these pumps is this suction seal ring. In fact I would say when you lose prime and the lift quits, the first and easiest thing to do is to remove the pump and replace the suction seal ring. I bet that would solve a lot of problems. Once you lose prime and get air in the system, the lift won't do much. Mine would not lift the brush hog at all! After the pump rebuild, you don't need to prime the system, just leave out the bleed plug and it primes immediately on start up and you quickly shut it off and install the bleed screw. Then you have to work the lift many times to purge the air. Hope this helps others here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!