Hello all
I may be a bit too cocky when I put everything together yesterday Rex. It may have been a bit too easy. Not sure yet.
I had the pump running for about 3 hours yesterday and I noticed no water was been pushed up the piston past the loose packing. I like to see a bit of water coming up here just for a bit of lubrication. I undid the packing gland until the two bolts were loose and still no water been pumped out so I put some water into a little well that's on top of the packing gland and it was sucked into the pump.
So I put more water in and it got sucked in also. My theory is the outlet on the cream can is too small. It's only 1/2" and everything else is 1", so I think a vacuum is been created on every suction stroke. Does this sound feasible?
We're off the Brisbane today so after I cut some firewood on Monday I'll try another 'water source' with an inch outlet and see what happens.
Another option is to turn the tap off a bit and see what happens. But that leads to water splashing due to pressure.
One thing I could not work out on the Triton is there is a little mounting tag on the edge of the packing gland with a threaded hole in it. You can see it in the picture. I cannot for the life of me work out what it's there for, so another option may be to put a water feed to that mounting flange and have a water drip happening. There are two ports in the top of the pump I could tap off. That reminds me, I have to look through the brass bolt box to find a couple of 3/8 brass bolts instead of those long, cad plated monstrosities screwed into the top of the pump.
Ian, your pump is the only other one I have seen or referenced. It's a bit hard to research the little pump when it's a Triton water pump. So many Mitsubishi Tritons with water pumps
I noticed your pump has no holes in the top and a greaser on the conrod when you first sent me a couple of pictures all those months ago. Our pump had nothing where the greaser was and the condition of the pump showed the results. That bush on the 'big end' was just borderline on wearing through and the brass gudgeon pin (if that's what it's called at the bottom) was totally stuffed and had worn the hole in the little end of the conrod into a nice elongated ellipse shape (it was nearly breaking through at the bottom).
Anyways, back to the story....I put some oil in that spot on the top of the conrod where your greaser is and it lasted for hours. I found a little cast iron wick oiler in the oiler container. I might put it on simply to save the mess of grease.
I have to admit I've gain just as much fun mucking about with this little pump as I do with an engine. One thing I've learned is they can be just as much of a problem as an engine. This little one took a lot of work with brass bushes to be made and valve seats to be refaced and rubber valves to be made and de-rusting and all that sort of caper.
Cheers Scott