Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion G&B Pump Disassembly Help

I am restoring a G&B 177. The pump handle is frozen so I have tried to disassemble the pump mechanism from the pot. The cast iron ring has been removed but I cannot move the pump face. I am assuming it sits in a "race" and is corroded together with the cast pot.
I do not want to break the cast pot by being too rough on it. It looks like there has already been a bugger weld repair to the neck.
Any ideas to get this off? I am currently soaking the guts with ATF; previously I tried spraying PB Blaster. I don't think heat will work well as the pot is a huge heat sink.

I am not trying to make it functional but once restored, it would be nice to move the handle.

Here a re a couple more pictures. This thing is not going to get the best of me. I could stop and reassemble now, which would be fine for my intended purpose of yard art, but that would be giving up. Can't do that.

No one has taken one of these pot style pumps apart before?

Here are some pictures. You will have to pull the packing out of the packing box on the pump. Similar to the packing box seen in the . If you have packing pullers it makes it so much easer, if not you will have to just dig it out. Once you have that out the front cover on the pump should be easer to pull off. the pictures should show you what you will end up with. Mitch

Thank you for the pictures. I'm thinking those things that look like split ring lock washers are the packing? That is what I have yet to pull. I'll go digging tomorrow. Any suggestions on getting them out, and no, I don't have packing pullers.
Thanks, Rick.

Soak them with lots of penetrating oil, they are fairly hard being in there for 80 years. Mitch

What is the packing made of? I've been digging out some ***** that could just be 90 year old dirt but it has the consistency of dry putty or even lead like old plumbing caulking around cast iron pipe. Your pics make it look like my target is metal.

So 67 chev, your last post was extremely helpful. I started digging and scraping and ended up pulling out string like material. So my guesswork, in the absence of real world knowledge, made me think of the oakum I watched my dad pack around galvanized pie as it entered cast pipe before pouring lead.
I'm guessing this is what the packing is. Sorry for my naive comments and questions, I'm new to gas pumps. But give me a sharp implement and a ball pein hammer and I can get it done.

One other question. Does this stuff extend the length of the shaft neck?

Thanks again, Rick.

Most of the packing in gasoline service is made from the material called graphite. The packing is usually 3/8 or 5/16 thick and approximately 1 1/2 deep or six rings. You'll know when you hit the bottom because it will be metal. Mitch

So far I have pulled out layers of string followed by deeper layers of what I thought was steel wool and black bearing grease. But some of the chunks had structure to it like a washer. Now that you say it is graphite, that is what the black material looked like. Thanks.

Here are a few pics of the packing from the pump. What I've pulled out so far looks like string oakum but the deeper layers look alot like steel wool and black gunk, maybe graphite. Thanks again to Mitch for the assistance.

Sorry, forgot to push "open". Here are the pics, I hope.

Well it has been soaking for several weeks. I finally got the pump face off. Severely corroded interior. The tolerances are so close, there is no wonder why, with a lot of corrosion and pitting, the thing would not move.
I'll try to get some pictures up of the inside once I get home from work.

Thanks again to 67Chev.

Now, take a 4" angle grinder and put a steel cup brush on it and clean the rust off of all parts that rub together (casing and impeller), wipe a thin layer of bearing grease on the surfaces that touch and put it back together. You don't need to replace the graphite packing rope because you are not worried about gasoline leaking around the shaft. Re-assemble all parts and you should be able to move the pump handle freely.

Thanks for that input.Yes, this is a nonfunctional pump at this time and never will be used as such. I took some of the tolerance off of the bronze "fins" to overcome the gross pitting and corrosion left even after considerable wire wheeling. I just used a bastard file. And the bearing grease is a great idea as I never plan to open this thing (at least not in my lifetime).