Having trouble with my pump

[adamharr]

Hi everybody!
I have been using the same Slingshot pump for maybe 3 seasons an average of 5 days a week and the other day i had some problem with it pumping. Once my kite started to get hard, air would start to come out of the pump.
I think it is that the rubber is bending around the cilinder and air leaks.
Anything i could do?
I tried removing the sand around the cilinder. Maybe some WD40 would do the job?

[Bain]

Sounds like the shaft seal is wearing out. After 3 seasons and 5 days a week, I'd say it's about time to break down and get another pump. WD won't help, it will actually just help the rubber break down even faster.

[Peter_Frank]

Sounds like the shaft seal is wearing out. After 3 seasons and 5 days a week, I'd say it's about time to break down and get another pump. WD won't help, it will actually just help the rubber break down even faster.

Agree fully - you should be happy you have had a pump last for so long (for almost no money), so buy a new one

Peter

[sarc]

Hi everybody!
I have been using the same Slingshot pump for maybe 3 seasons an average of 5 days a week and the other day i had some problem with it pumping. Once my kite started to get hard, air would start to come out of the pump.
I think it is that the rubber is bending around the cilinder and air leaks.
Anything i could do?
I tried removing the sand around the cilinder. Maybe some WD40 would do the job?

ARGH... you have been kiting 5x / week for the last 3 years... I hate you...

[Bain]

ARGH... you have been kiting 5x / week for the last 3 years... I hate you...

I know, right!?!
One would think if someone spent that much time kiting, they wouldn't have questions about a pump!

[GregK]

Sounds like the shaft seal is wearing out. . .

Before giving up on it, it may be an easy fix. Take the pump apart ( unscrew the top ) and examine the conditions of the seals. If it's the seals around the piston, they are a unique shape and not available as a replacement part yet, maybe one day.

If the handle shaft fits very loose in the pump top, then it is the shaft seal. It too is a custom square cross-section seal, but a fat o-ring with just a slightly smaller ID ( inner diameter ) than the shaft's OD ( outer diameter ) will work reasonably well. The shaft is screwed and usually glued into the piston, it will take a good twist to get those two parts apart to get a new shaft seal in place.

The seals in your pump are synthetic rubber, and putting petroleum-based lubricants into a pump will rot the seals ( ever wonder where those blobs of black tar inside kite bladders comes from ? Answer : bits of p-b lubricated pump seal ). Use lubricants intended for rubber, like silicone.

[fdvj]

Why can't we buy replacement seals yet? Someone make some please. Throwing away something that could be easily mended is, at the very least, environmentally un friendly.

[SalmonSlayer]

Why can't we buy replacement seals yet? Someone make some please. Throwing away something that could be easily mended is, at the very least, environmentally un friendly.

In the US you can get replacement ring seals for the shaft (it is the seal in the cap) at Napa autoparts

New o-ring part # 727-2215 at Napa 80 cents each
White Lithium Grease works for me

http://pskite.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=9668

[NYKiter]

excellent thread link there...

[Laughingman]

Hi everybody!
I have been using the same Slingshot pump for maybe 3 seasons an average of 5 days a week and the other day i had some problem with it pumping. Once my kite started to get hard, air would start to come out of the pump.
I think it is that the rubber is bending around the cilinder and air leaks.
Anything i could do?
I tried removing the sand around the cilinder. Maybe some WD40 would do the job?

ARGH... you have been kiting 5x / week for the last 3 years... I hate you...

Me too! That shit there is just not fair...f'n -20°C again this morning. I think hell has frozen over and I am living there....