Repair foot pump (for car tyres)

In message <YExxQ.38286$ snipped-for-privacy@fx06.ams, fred snipped-for-privacy@for.mail writes

You're right. The modern head end is mainly plastic, so needs replacing, but has at least pinpointed the problem.

Indeed - i've got an Aldi digital 12V pump. Does the job, but very noisy.

When rubber gets old it swells* and you can test this by disconnecting the pipe from the pump and blowing into it to see if the air goes through. You will either find you can't blow through it (blocked bore) or you can blow through it despite blocking the bit that goes on the tyre valve (leaky pipe). Also, having removed the pipe from the pump body, put your finger over the hole the pipe screws into and press hard to keep it there while operating the pump. The valves are in the pump body and if the pump forces your finger off the hole then the valves are still good.

Having already bought a replacement pump, does the pipe from the new one fit the body of the old one? If it does you are home and dry. Otherwise you will have to identify the thread on your old pipe so you know what to buy. Do you know a friendly mechanic if you can't do that yourself?

• Many years ago I bought for restoration an old car that had been left in bits in someone's garden for several years. I reassembled it (all the bits were there, the owner just couldn't remember how they went back together after taking a long time to source the parts he needed - no internet in those days). I couldn't get the mechanical pump on the engine to fill the carburettor float chamber, but if I put petrol into the float chamber by hand the engine would run until it was used up. I traced the problem to the flexible pipe connecting the metal pipe from the petrol tank to the petrol pump on the engine, which looked OK from the outside but the internal bore was completely blocked. When I replaced the pipe the pump filled the float chamber. The message is: just because it looks OK on the outside it doesn't prove that the inside is OK.

If you got your current pump 50 years ago, you are certainly in the Morris Minor era.

I got tyred of foot pumps, which took forever & wore me out, then 12v electric pumps which didn't last long and always only had _just_ enough cable to reach the car's own tyres - pumping up the caravan tyres involved some really tricky maneuvering to get close enough.

I bit the bullet and, because I already had the Makita 18v batteries, I bought one of these:

P.S. There are cheaper rip offs which take the same batteries.

Or a stirrup pump for putting out incendiary bombs as used by ARP Wardens.

Why do people do that (dismantle an old car and put the bits at the bottom of the garden)?

When we moved here (1980s) we found 80% of some old Renault car fully dismantled and stored in a disused, derelict, old shed/chicken coop at the very bottom of the garden. Carrying the engine block 50 yards up the slope to the road level was not a task I enjoyed.

If anyone is going to buy one, and needs higher pressures, there is a newer DMP181 model (more expensive though).

From the manual "Do not use the tool as a breathing device" :-o

It's a "project" ...

I fancied a DAS180 for blowing away sawdust, inflating air beds, etcetera, but the price was too high so I bought a cheap knock-off from Aliexpress. The build quality is abysmal (with stick-on "Makita" labels, which I've peeled off) but it works.

I bought one of these a few months ago.

Too early to comment on reliability. Did put a dab of grease on the thread which makes connecting a bit smoother.

In message snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org>, AnthonyL snipped-for-privacy@please.invalid writes

Now that is tempting. Thank you.

In message <bXAxQ.2602$_D snipped-for-privacy@fx15.ams, Sam Plusnet snipped-for-privacy@home.com writes

Tempting, but a little pricey for my needs, particularly as I don't have any other Makita devices.

In message <10a6g9v$t6it$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Indy Jess John snipped-for-privacy@OMITTHISgooglemail.com writes

'68 Traveller parked outside :-)

In message <10a6fvl$t6is$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Indy Jess John snipped-for-privacy@OMITTHISgooglemail.com writes

I did, and it does.

Tried that, with the correct result.

Notta chance :-)

I did manage to swap the head ends earlier, which seems to have cured the problem.

Let's hope that it's better than this one!

You had it relatively easy! Our neighbours had to shift over three skip loads of concrete and brick rubble by wheelbarrow when they decided they wanted a new patio and lawn. They've since found documentation that the land was originally used for "Dig for Victory" in WWII, and Anderson shelters were made available. It probable that a good part of the rubble was demolished shelters.

I hadn't mentioned that, whenever we dug a planing hole, or deep-dug the 'veg plot' we would find buried treasure in the form of broken glass, semi-rotted window frames, odds & ends of ironmongery (usually too rusted to identify), worn mining/quarrying tools, crisp packets...

I have a Ryobi one which is battery operated. Very useful.