Re-Cycle if you can

Sometimes it really irks me when I think about the 'Consumer' society that we live in today and about the amount of stuff that is tossed out into the trash simply because it is easier to buy a new item than to repair and re-cycle the old one.

I have been wanting to set up a small 'Stand-alone' engine and water pump to act as a fire fighting unit for my house and workshop as I live in a highly fire prone area. I could easily buy a Chinese engine and pump unit for a mere $150, ....probably use it a couple of times and then throw it away!

However, after doing a spot of browsing on the net, I discovered a local second hand machinery place that were selling an 8hp Briggs & Stratton and Finsbury water pump (combined unit) for $20 as a non runner. It looked like too good an opportunity to be missed and there could not be much that would stop such a simple unit from working again.

I had a good look over the whole unit and found that the engine would turn over but the pull start mechanism was not working. The fuel tank was also rusted through so obviously water had found its way into the tank and probably the carburettor.

I de-coupled the engine and pump and concentrated on getting the engine going first. I repaired the pull start dog-clutch by using appropriate sized balls from an old ball race that I ratted. Next, I stripped, cleaned and re-set the points and lastly stripped and cleaned out the carburettor of all debris and deposits. Connected a temporary fuel supply, a couple of pulls later and away it went! Marvellously simple old engines are the B&S.

The water pump was another story all together! It appears to have been sitting for many years but full of salt water which had really taken a liking to the aluminium casing, especially in the area where the cast iron pump stator seats up against the housing inlet. The stator spigot is supposed to fit into the smaller recess with an 'O' ring seal up against the larger flat face. A quick glance would tell anyone that this was not going to happen!

I took it down to the local sand blaster and paid $10 to have it cleaned up ready for some epoxy putty re-modelling.

The top outlet face was not looking too well either.

Drawing upon dim and distant memories from doing pottery and clay modelling at school, I set about reworking the seal area.

The main difference being that at school, the clay did not set hard after only 3 minutes!  I had to mix up several small portions in succession and add them, a section at a time.

The following day, I set up the housing on the milling machine and re-produced the original spigot and seal areas in the now hardened epoxy putty.

The stator spigot fits into the smaller diameter and the 'O' ring seals against the larger flat face.

I set up the top outlet face and milled off  enough to just clean up. This face is sealed with a rubber gasket so I was not too worried about a bit of porosity.

All that remains is to repair 2 broken studs, re-assemble the pump, couple it back up to the engine and find a small fuel tank to strap to the engine. All up costs so far, are about $43 and it should be good for another 20 years or more!

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