Water Pump Woes

By Rebecca Carson

So where were we? Ahhhh yes, trying out the auto-wash. Well now we are back to the water pump. We had to; cut and fit the seals for the piston, add the wick, oil it and build the trolley.

The seal comes as a length of rope which you have to cut to length yourself. I figured out the length by finding the average diameter between the piston and the seal seat. I then multiplied this by π and that gave me the right length. I did make a slight mistake by fitting the seals and then putting in the piston and then the cross pin, but I realised that I had forgotten to fit the collars! I had to strip it all down and start again.

We pushed in the drive shaft but there was no string to act as a wick. Mum had found natural string in Lidl, so we cut off the right length, fed it through and then soaked it in oil. I oiled the brass bushing and put the shaft back in again. We put on the other drive gear, but the keyways didn’t line up. After some thinking, we discovered the gear was on back to front. When we put it on the right way round we turned it by hand, but there was a tight spot so we took the gear off AGAIN! We found burrs on some teeth and took them off with a mini file. When we put it back on every-thing ran smoothly.

Next thing to go on was the conrods which were so snug they needed a tap with the copper hammer. The conrods were held on with four new split pins. We polished up the big end greasers with Peek polish. The fast pulley was next to be added and we made sure there was no paint on the running faces. We fitted a greaser to the loose pulley and then we slid it on to the drive shaft. Then it was time for the bronze outrigger bushing. The trick was to adjust the bolts to line it up.

It was exciting fitting the brass caps to the pump body using jointing compound and lint, which the old boys call tow which rhymes with cow not toe! In the old days if the farmer didn’t grow flax he would have used paint and hair from the horse’s tail. The serial number of the pump was stamped onto one of the caps.

The pump is an awkward shape because of the fast and loose pulleys and the outrigger stand, so we decided we were going to make a prototype trolley made of four by inch and half white wood. Its not permanent but it’ll do for now.

To complete the project, we still need some fittings, a belt (we have a plan for that) some pipe work from an old milking parlour and we have a water tank with some very special history.

For my Allen Scythe project I needed new tyres. It just so happens Dad knew a man who fits tyres for the motorcycle trials riders and he had some old ones in his shed. Their front tyres are 21”x2.75” tyres which are the right size for the Allen Scythe and have the right tread pattern, and they’re great for hula hooping!

A few weeks ago we went to Castlederg Vintage Rally and we met a nice man called Billy Thompson. He showed us his dioramas of Irish rural scenes which he had made himself.

There was a lovely Morris Minor split screen in Almond Green and a grey Minor van with an Austin badge and grill, this is because there was no more production of the A35 van and Austin needed a van to sell. We met lots of friends and had a great day.