Bridgeport 2 cyl tire pump

[George Mills]

I finally decided to bite the bullet and pick up a 2 cylinder pump without visible dings and restore it completely.

Has been more frustrating than a T to get into, but finally there. Someone rebuilt this one back when I was a baby I think and did a lot of shade tree fixes so thought to just copy would be fruitless.

A few questions...

1 - Is there any place to find a seal kit? I've seen videos of making plunger seals out of layers of cork using the tube as the die, I know that Restoration Supply sells seal cups of about 8 different diameters, was just wondering if someone has figured it out before and could point me in the right direction on what to do. .

2 - The small cylinder stem packing box was filled with some sort of coned rubber faucet washer with black stuffing box twine sandwiched with a coned spring washer. I have serious reservations about trying that trick again. Any recommendations?

3- What is the purpose of the hex head screw in the top of the large cylinder? Not sure it is there to adjust anything but it does have a machined dog point on it?

4- Is there a check valve somewhere or do you just pump fast?

I'll have other questions as I go along but these are the obvious for now.

Thanks in advance.

[Steve Jelf]

I haven't worked on that particular pump, but I can comment on a couple of things. Any of these pumps I've worked on had leathers. When we used to have a real hardware store here I could buy them there. Since the local folks decided they'd rather support an overpriced chain store that doesn't stock that kind of thing, I get scraps from a saddle shop and make my own. It's just a round piece of leather that folds down over the edge of the steel disk to form a seal against the inside of the tube. You oil it to help it seal.

The old pumps don't have a check valve. They rely on the valve in the tire stem to perform that function. They work just as well now as they did 100 years ago. BUT you need to have the right fitting on your hose. This page explains it: https://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG115.html

[George Mills]

Thanks for that Steve, some good info.

Some of this old stuff is fun, frustratingly fun...

Just getting the handle off was a chore...well, the handle salvaging part was a chore. Was able to get the nuts off of the rod stems easy enough but there were tight spots so decided to chase the threads. 1/4-20? NOPE. 1/4-28? NOPE. Could they be 14 something? Still dunno! The nut fit on the fine nut gauge but not the coarse and the thread gauges suggested a 24 TPI. Think I had a die? Nope. So I sat at the bench with a 60 degree thread file and hand wrapped to clean threads on both shafts.

I mention this because my Bro and I have just exchanged the 'time to do things' experiences and laments. His view is he gets disheartened when it takes him many times longer to do something he use to be pretty sharp at. My view is that as long as I am lucky enough to be able to get up in the morning, I have all of the time in the world to accomplish any task.

I'll keep plugging at this...tried a deep search...not much learned...maybe I'll chronicle the good the bad and the ugly of making this thing work and look as it came out of the box over 100 years ago.

[Steve Jelf]

His view is he gets disheartened when it takes him many times longer to do something he use to be pretty sharp at.

One of the features of advanced maturity. Another is looking down and seeing blood and wondering, "How the heck did I do that?" And having to take off the bifocals and resort to 10x reading glasses for close work. And struggling to move a sack of sand. The blood thing doesn't bother me. I just put on a bandage if needed and go about whatever I was doing. But the feeble/clumsy/slow thing is so exasperating it sometimes inspires an outburst of military poetry.