G'day folks,


I thought I'd share my recent experiences with a piston vacuum pump – as well as some of my stir crazy busyness in this past long long winter when I've spent more time stuck indoors than ever before.


In the beginning I planned to just do a simple DIY for replacing the bearings on the cam follower, but it got out of hand. Now there are several DIYs in one. Today I can present to you

• How to remove and replace your OM61X piston vacuum pump
• How to rebuild your OM61X piston vacuum pump
• Notes on how to test your OM61X piston vacuum pump
• How to drill out a screw
• How to fit bearings
• How to measure and estimate coil spring stiffness (and thus forces due to compression or tension)
• How to estimate “valve bounce”

I'm also figuring out some more (silly?) engineering stuff that I'll be adding later on when I get bored or when the next endless winter kicks in. So this thread is a work in progress.


All sounds a bit weird eh? If you're interested read on! But I warn you now this is a big 'un.


This all started when I saw an on-line bargain – a vacuum pump that had been fitted to a (W123) 200D. I struck a deal and it cost me €27 delivered. It came in a slightly damaged state with two screws broken off of the cover – but hey – you can't look a gift horse in its mouth. In the mucky climate in which I live all of these screws corrode and get stuck; it was a shame that the screws were broken but I reckoned I could fix it.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!