mud pump missing bolts brands

Continental Emsco Drilling Products, Inc., which consisted of Emsco drilling machinery and Wilson mobile rigs, was purchased by National-Oilwell, Inc on July 7, 1999. To our knowledge, no pumps have been manufactured and sold under the Emsco brand name since National-Oilwell acquired them.

Fairbanks Morse pumps are currently manufactured in Kansas City, Kansas. Fairbanks Morse is a division of Pentair ever since August, 1997 when Pentair purchased the General Signal Pump Group.

Gaso pumps are manufactured by National Oilwell Varco. Gaso was acquired as "Wheatley Gaso" by National-Oilwell in the year 2000. At the time, Wheatley Gaso was owned by Halliburton.

Skytop Brewster pumps are no longer available as new pumps. Skytop Brewster(Cnsld Gold), a unit of Hansen PLC"s Consolidated Gold Fields subsidiary, was acquired while in bankruptcy by National-Oilwell, Inc. in November, 1999.

A few years ago, I purchased a Baker Mfg. Co. 51E catalog featuring Monitor-brand engines and equipment. Inside, the catalog shows a photo of a 1-1/4 HP Monitor engine hooked up to a diaphragm pump – sometimes referred to as a mud pump or a trash pump. The only information Baker offers on this setup is a black-and-white catalog photo with a small caption beneath that reads, ‘For Trench Pumping.’ I thought this was a pretty neat-looking setup, and since I collect Monitor engines I really wanted to add this unique mud pump configuration to my collection.

I searched for these mud pump outfits for a couple of years with no luck, so I figured the only way to ever get one was to build it. It turned out that locating the pump was the hardest part of the whole project – I wasn’t even sure of the pump brand in the catalog, but I didn’t let that stop me! I got my lucky break while attending a gas engine show at Fort Scott, Kan. An auction was planned at the show, so after making my rounds through all the engine displays I headed on down to see what they were going to auction. I could hardly believe my eyes when I walked up on a mud pump. Right there before me sat the pump I had been searching for! Built by the Edson Mfg. Co. of Boston, the pump was kind of rough, but nothing major was wrong with it. It isn’t the same shape as the pump in the black-and-white catalog photo, which probably means it isn’t the same brand, but it would do perfectly, nonetheless. I didn’t stray far from that spot until the pump was mine.

Now that I had finally obtained the most needed part for this project, I was anxious to get started with the restoration. About the only thing I did to the Edson pump was give it a good sandblasting, replace some of the bolts and the diaphragm, and make a new handle. To date, I still don’t know the year the pump was made, although Edson is still in business and still sells the diaphragms for this kind of pump. Additionally, the pump didn’t have a patent number cast anywhere on it, but the number ‘ 1882’ is cast in it. Could that be the year the pump was made? It might be since the company has been in operation since 1859.

I purchased a 1-1/4 HP, 500-rpm, hopper-cooled Monitor engine, serial no. 17798, for this project. According to the serial number list, this unit was made in 1918, and it has a 3-1/2-inch bore and a 4-inch stroke. The flywheel measures 17-5/8 inches in diameter with a 2-1/4-inch face. Ignition is accomplished by buzz coil and spark plug. After disassembling the hit-and-miss engine, I found it had a lot of problems – almost every part was worn beyond use and never rebuilt. The worst problems on the engine were a cracked flywheel and a big chunk missing from the cylinder bottom where the rod came loose before it was retired. Also, the exhaust detent arm that attaches to the detent support bracket had been worn to an egg shape, and it had so much play I couldn’t get the beginning or end of the hookup period to adjust out. I had no way to repair those problems, and considering all the broken and worn-out parts, I had almost decided to just part out what I could from the engine and locate another one for the project.

Now that I had most everything repaired, the only thing left was to reassemble and paint everything. To my surprise, when I started the engine for the first time, it fired up on the second turn of the flywheel and ran great! In all, this setup weighs about 615 pounds, and the restored Edson pump moves I gallon of water on each stroke.

Most of the square gas tank Monitors I’ve seen were painted gray by the factory, but on my engine only traces of red paint were present, so that’s the color I chose. Even though this engine needed so much work, I’m glad I went ahead and restored it. It was a fun project and has turned out to be a real crowd-pleaser at every show I take it to. These pumps are hard to find, and I had never seen or heard of a setup like this, so I’m guessing Baker only made a limited number. Most show-goers walk by a lot of the other displays with hardly a glance – but not this one! Only a few people are able to walk by without watching for a good while. If anyone out there has an original example of this setup, I’d like to hear from them.

Remove siphon tube and feel lower ball check to be sure it is free to move off its seat. Place full cup of paint thinner over end of fluid section and turn on pump.

Prime pump with compatible solvent. Bring up to pressure, carefully remove pump from solvent container and immerse inlet tube into heavy material to be sprayed. With nozzle tip removed, trigger gun until heavy material appears at gun. Replace nozzle tip and you"re ready to spray.

With spray gun trigger closed, allow unit to pump up to pressure and shut off. If pump momentarily starts, internal leak is indicated and fluid section rebuild is necessary.

Remove siphon tube and feel lower ball check to be sure it is free to move off its seat. Place full cup of paint thinner over end of fluid section and turn on pump.

Prime pump with compatible solvent. Bring up to pressure, carefully remove pump from solvent container and immerse inlet tube into heavy to be sprayed. With nozzle tip removed, trigger gun until heavy material appears at gun. Replace nozzle tip and you"re ready to spray.

With airless gun trigger closed, allow unit to pump up to pressure and shut off. If pump momentarily starts, internal leak is indicated and fluid section rebuild is necessary.

2. Check pump connecting rod pin. It must be completely pushed into connecting rod and retaining spring must be firmly in connecting rod groove. Push pin into place and secure with spring retainer.

2. Be sure pump does not continue to stroke when gun trigger is released. Plug in and turn on sprayer. Prime with paint. Trigger gun momentarily, then release and lock safety latch. Relieve pressure, turn off and unplug the airless sprayer.

3. Dirt and foreign particles are common causes. Remove pump intake head. Clean and inspect check valve and cage for clearance. More than 1/16" may prevent the ball from sealing quickly. If clearance is less than 1/32", ball may not open sufficiently and pump will starve. Paint should be strained in a separate container.

1. Paint strainer bag sucked around the bottom of the siphon assembly. If it is, the bag may not allow enough material into the pump and the pump will starve. Paint should be strained in a separate container.

B. Be sure there is fluid in the paint tank. If oil is not pumping freely back to hydraulic reservoir tank, remove knob from pressure control valve and pull stem back gently 1/8" with fingers to free ball on seat and allow oil to pump out with no resistance for several minutes. Replace knob on pressure control valve. Screw on until desired pressure is obtained.

2. Vacuum valve - It also regulates the flow of oil into the pump. If it is not checking, there will be a loss of pressure. If it is not admitting oil freely, there will also be a loss in pressure. In either case, this valve should be replaced.

Got the block back from the machine shop. I want to verify the clearance with Plastigage so this will be the 3rd retorque. And after checking the results the final install with be the 4th retorque. The rod bolts are still within spec. The machinist mentioned no need to plastigage it. So if I don"t then that"ll the 3rd torque session. Don"t want to take any chances so ordered the rod bolts/nuts. Haven"t taken that out before and saw some youtube videos where they put the rod on a pipe and bash out the bolt which doesn"t look good to me. Apply heat then clamp it in a vise and hammer out? Any other methods you guys have used?

Rounding out a bolt on your bike is never a good thing, whether it"s through being seized or by accident. Both pedal cleat and disc rotor bolts are particularly susceptible to getting stuck or rounded out so this guide will run you through how to safely extract them without damaging anything expensive.

The first thing to say - and one that won"t much come as much use if you"ve already gone and rounded a bolt out or found one that"s stuck solid - is that prevention is much easier than the cure. That means using an anti-seize compound on things like cleat bolts and pedal threads.

You can also use blue Loctite on disc rotor bolts - you don"t want any grease near them - as it acts to prevent corrosion as well as stopping them coming loose. It also goes without saying that you shouldn"t overtighten any bolt in the first place.

You should also make sure you clean any dirt out the heads of bolts before attempting to undo them. Cleat bolts, in particular, tend to have a lot of impacted mud in them which means you can"t engage a Hex key to the full depth, with inevitable results if you try and undo it.

It"s often better to do this as a matter of course with cleat bolts as they have a pretty tough life. If you"ve tried to remove a bolt but rounded it out, then apply oil to any remaining ones before trying to do any more - odds on, they"ll be just as tight.

It"s a good technique for rounded out Torx disc rotor bolts as these sit proud of the rotor surface and are easy to access. It"s not so good for any bolt that"s recessed as getting to it will be much harder unless you have a Dremel-style cutting tool. If it"s still not playing or you can"t get access in the first place, it"s time for...

The techniques described here should take care of almost all the issues you"ll have with seized and rounded out bolts using only simple hand tools. That said, if you aren"t confident in your abilities as a mechanic, it might be best to take it to a professional as doing a ham-fisted attempt is liable to make it much, much harder for someone that knows what they"re doing to fix it for you.

Ok! This is not an easy task, and I recommend that anyone thinking about doing it AT LEAST consider having the well pump identified as the failed component by a professional prior to undertaking it. In my case, the water in my house stopped working (on a Friday night, of course). I know my system pretty well and was able to determine that the fault in my system COULD NOT BE ANYTHING BUT my well pump motor before I took any action. Guess what? I called the plumber anyway. If nothing else, you"ll pay $60 to have your diagnosis confirmed and maybe even get an estimate that will provide you with the motivation to do the job on your own. (My estimate to pull and replace the well was $2400... By following these steps I was able to do the job myself for less than $400!)

The well used in this example is relatively shallow. It only runs about 100"-120" deep. Some wells can run to depths of hundreds (or thousands!) of feet. In the case of anything deeper than about 250" I would recommend that you have it pulled by a pro. Why? Because it"s HEAVY! And there are special tools that contractors have to lift the pump from that kind of depth. Look at it this way: Even if you have someone else pull the well, you can do the repair/replace action on your own once it"s out of the ground, and still save money. ;)

My well was dug about 25 years ago. One of the things that happens with older wells is that, over a period of several years, silt from the aquifer can seep into the bottom of the casing. That"s a bad thing. Why? Because the silt builds up to a depth that"s too close to the pump, and the pump ends up sucking up the silt and muck from the bottom of the well, and then pushes it into your house! (You"ll see the result of this kind of thing in the following pictures.)

The weight of the whole pump assembly hangs on the water hose that the pump uses to push water into the house. Up near the top the water tube hits what"s called a "pitless connector," where it makes a hard right turn toward the house.

See how the pump looks a bit like a bottle made of two pieces? The bottom part is the motor. The top part is the impeller that sucks the water out of the well and sends it to the house.

When you turn on the water to wash your hands or flush your toilet, the amount of water stored in the pressure tank is reduced. Reduced water in the tank means reduced pressure. The pressure switch on the tank is set up so that it knows what point to turn ON the pump (pulling water up from the well to replace what you"ve used), and what point to turn OFF the pump (to keep your system from exploding). Having a pressure tank does two things for you:

Ideally, your well pump should be able to push more water than above-average household use will require. (Most houses are recommended to have a pump that will support 5 gallons per minute.) That way, more water per minute is pushed up from the well than you can (normally) expect to be able to get out of a sink, or a shower. By having a pump that exceeds your practical use, the pressure tank is able to maintain steady flow. There will always be more water available to the tank than you can pull from the tap. With the right pump, you can have two showers, a sink and a toilet all flowing at the same time without any discernible drop in pressure.

Once you"ve made your wrench, you just stick it down into the well, thread it into the connector and get ready to PULL. While you do that, make sure someone is holding onto the safety rope! If anything goes wrong, and your partner happens to NOT be holding the rope, the well pump will fall into the abyss... lost forever.

Well caps are usually secured by three or four bolts. Loosen the bolts to the point where they *almost* come off the cap. You want to leave them threaded a bit, so you don"t lose them. Then give the well cap a few "uppercut" swings with a medium-sized hammer. It should pop off without much trouble.

It"s very important that you NOT get any kinks in the water line (the black tube). So, pulling the pump is definitely a two person job. As one person pulls it up out of the well, the other person walks it (in a straight line or in a curve) away from the well.

Dogs are really helpful to have around when doing a job like this. Moral support is important. Especially when, after a couple of minutes pulling up the well pump, you realize that you"ve been making some very poor decisions about exercise and eating habits.

Keep in mind, the well pump (itself) usually weighs about 50 lbs. The water trapped in the tube also holds significant weight. The deeper the well, the more weight you"re dealing with. Plus, there"s that whole "physics and leverage" thing to deal with.

Furthermore, up until this point, I had no idea what kind of well pump was down there. They come in various configurations of power, voltage, number of wires, and number of gallons per minute. Normally, the Horsepower Rating is written (as a courtesy) on the underside of the well cap. No such luck here. I had to pull it up just to find out what it was. You may be in the same boat when it"s time to do yours.

Turns out that mine was a 3/4 HP Jacuzzi. They sold out to a company called Franklin Electric years ago. Since it was just the motor that fried, it might have been possible to order a replacement motor (which would generate significant savings), but that might have taken days or weeks to find/deliver. I didn"t want to measure the amount of time I was without water in terms of "days or weeks." Plus, this pump was so clogged with gunk that it wasn"t worth taking the chance on another failure. A whole new pump was definitely required.

Note: This is one of those moments where it"s good to get along with your neighbors. Thanks to mine, we were able to hose off the motor to find out exactly what the specs were. (See, the source of my water was sitting on the ground... Hence I had no water with which to hose off the pump!) The worn out pump ran on about 8 amps, and pushed about 6.8 gallons per minute. It"s a 220V, two-wire motor. That"s exactly the sort of thing you need to know when you"re buying a replacement. Make notes or take pictures of this information and take it with you to the store.

Let"s take a look at the cleaned-off pump. You"ll note the two pieces, (like in my drawing). The far left is the electric motor. The dirty clyinder in the middle-left is the impeller. The black stuff in the middle is a WHOLE LOT of electrical tape, covering the spliced electrical connections for the motor and the check valve that keeps water from flowing back into the well. The thing that looks like a bulb (toward the right) is called a "torque arrestor." Remember how I told you that my well casing is 6" wide? Well... the well pump is only 4" wide. The Torque Arrestor rubs up against the well casing and keeps the pump from spinning at the bottom of the well.

Since I knew that the well pump had been sitting in muck for who knows how long, it seemed like a good idea to shorten the length of the water tube. As you can see, I walked off about 10" of tube length from the well pump and prepared to make my cut. (By the way, I used a set of ratcheting pipe cutters. If you don"t have a set of these, they go for about $11 at home depot and they make life SO much easier when you"re doing plumbing.) Making the tube shorter would result in a shallower suspension and (hopefully) preserve the life of the new pump.

YUCK! That"s a 1" tube so full of compacted muck that it really restricted the flow of water to my house. NO WONDER THE PUMP FAILED! Keep in mind, we"ve done testing for harmful bacteria and a slew of other things on our well and it"s always come up clean... but still. Ew!

Before we head to the store to buy the replacement pump, we needed to make sure that the shopping list included EVERYTHING. We already knew we needed the well pump and the water line, but what kind of shape was the pitless adapter in? I know it looks rough, but it"s actually not that bad. I gave it a quick scrub under the garden hose, and inspected the O-Ring.

I genuinely recommend that you do a little searching around on the web for a replacement pump before jumping in your car and assuming that Home Depot or Lowes will have the one you need, in stock. I got extremely lucky. I didn"t search before I got in the car. The nearest store happened to have the pump I needed. I later learned it was the only one in stock within 30 miles of me! As luck would have it, it also turns out that this one produces TEN gallons per minute at a lower rated amperage than the original. (Hooray for improvements in technology!)

This Flotec pump had a sticker price of under $340. Since it was Memorial day, they gave me the 10% Veteran"s discount at Home Depot, (shameless plug for businesses that respect military service). In the end, it wound up costing me a little over $300. GOOD DEAL!

Note: This model did not come with the check valve, or the reducer needed to get down to the 1" spur I would need for the water line. Sadly, home depot didn"t carry the right check valve, or spur, for this pump. I had to go somewhere else for that.... a place that did NOT offer the Veteran"s discount and hence shall not be named in this instructable.

Looking at the close-up picture of the assembly, there"s a 1 1/4" stainless nipple threaded into the top of the well pump, a 1 1/4" check valve (brass) and a stainless steel reducer (aka "spur") that goes into the hose line. I used my salvaged hose clamps to secure the new water line to the reducer.

Some people may read this and wonder, "What is a check valve?" It"s basically a valve that only allows fluids to move in one direction. Water can flow into your house when the pump pushes it, but it can"t drain back into the well when the pump stops. This is a vital component, because when your system gets pressurized the check valve keeps all the water in your house from dumping back down into the well. Kind of a big deal.

Once you get to this point, you"re ready to make sure the well pump is working. I forgot to take a picture of that part, but it goes like this: Get a BIG bucket (like a 10-20 gallon plastic tub) and use your awesome neighbor"s hose to fill it up with water. Then submerge the assembled well pump into the water, making sure water covers the impeller intakes.

Then put your cell phones to good use. Have your assistant go down into the basement and flip the breaker that will turn on the pump. You should immediately see it sucking water out of the tub at a rapid rate. If it does, the pump is ready to go back down in the hole!

Feed the pump back into the casing slowly, using the safety rope. Line up the pitless connector, using a flashlight. Slide it into place and then seat it fully by giving it a couple of downward whacks with a hammer until you feel it seated properly.

For the pressure tank to work correctly, the ambient pressure (while completely drained) has to be -2lbs from the pressure at which you want the well pump switch to kick on. I like my water pressure to be between 55 and 75 psi. That means, the ideal air pressure for the bladder in the tank was about 53 psi. I hooked up an air compressor and filled it until it reached that point.

Not performing this step will cause a variety of problems, not the least of which is "short cycling." If you have too little (or too much) air in the tank it can throw off the actual volume of water the tank will hold. That can lead to the pump constantly switching on/off... which eventually burns out the pump, or the pump switch. Not good.

What you"re looking at here is a well pump switch. They come pre-set for 30/50 and 40/60. The first number is the psi at which the switch will sense the pressure in the system is too low, and it will turn the pump on. The second number is the number at which the pressure in the system makes the switch say "Okay... that"s enough."

This well switch is brand new. I bought it the night before I replaced the well pump, hoping that it would fix my well problem. Obviously, it didn"t.

You have to be VERY careful when you do this, and I don"t recommend that anyone try it. The reason I do it, is that it lets me make my adjustments without constantly having to reset the breaker. I tweak it, and let the pressure tank fill up. I then use the valve underneath to release water pressure. As I release the pressure, I watch the gauge to see what point the switch kicked on. Once I adjusted it to the point where the pump flipped on at 55 psi, I was good to go.

Here"s what you do: Dump about 3/4 of the gallon of bleach in the well (with the water pump still on, so you can still use your hose). Then run your hose down the well to circulate the bleach. This process WILL pull bleach water into your house, so don"t plan on using the water during this process. Run the hose for about an hour to get the water from the bottom all the way back up to the top, ensuring that the chlorine mixes with ALL the water in the well. Then use the remaining 1/4 of the bottle to sanitize the well cap. Put the cap back on and go inside.

I"ll spare you all the details of what I went through to figure out the problem. Bottom line: When I replaced the well pump, I probably should have replaced the electrical wiring going down to the pump. Two reasons for this:

1) The wire I inherited was some kind of specialized, 12 gauge, submersible pump wire. Old school. Prone to problems. It didn"t have a ground wire, which I thought was weird at the time but figured the previous pump had been working for years without it... so... made due with what I had.

2) That old school wire can go bad on you. Even with a torque arrestor in place the pumps can spin inside of the casing, which twist the power line. If given enough time, the wire will eventually break... which is what happened to me.

The moral of the story: Replacing your electrical wiring only costs about $150 (if you go with the high-end, 12 gauge, no-casing, submersible wiring you can get at places like Lowe"s). The good thing about the newer stuff is that it doesn"t tend to break when it gets twisted up. If you don"t want to have to pull your well pump up out of the casing again, just to change the wiring three years after you did the job, maybe take care of it while you have it out of the ground the first time.

Just looking at the pictures of the slimy red gunk in your pipe and around your pump makes me think you should do some googling on "Iron Bacteria". I can"t be certain but it could be a possible cause of your issues.

When selecting the replacement pump don"t just assume that the last guy chose the perfect pump for the job. After all there could be a reason the original pump failed. I would recommend going back to basics and select a pump based on:

Pump ends are made up of a stack of impellers. Each impeller increases the pressure developed by the impellers below it (without increasing flow). So a shallow well might need a six impeller pump, while a deep one will need more. Perhaps twenty or more. The upshot of this is that there are hundreds of motor/pump end combinations to choose from, and while it"s not a particularly exact science it"s important to choose one that will operate happily in your application. You should be able to find pressure/flow charts on pump company websites and catalogues.

Sorry, got a bit carried away there. My brother and I used to own a pump company (Pumpmaster Australia) so pumps have played an important role in my life.

Iron bacteria! Thank you for the tip. We"re in a situation here where the house had two owners before we bought it in 2011. The first owners were amazing. The second owners were really nice folks, but the word around the neighborhood (and the evidence we"ve seen around the house) is that they were not "maintenance people." We"ve gradually been replacing the big-ticket items as they fail from the years of neglect. I"ve already replaced most of the plumbing between the well pump switch and the house, including the water softener and neutralizer. They were both so clogged up with gunk that the valve systems failed. (Nothing like a mouth full of salt water after a regeneration!)

Yep, works fine....Started out knowing jack shit about well pumps, about to call a pro for a emergency repair in a rural area...sent your instructable to my brother, mom, and dad...we all reviewed it, made notes, shopping list...printed/saved it to have on hand...got it done no problem....like seriously a life saverReplyUpvote

Side note for those reading this. Your probably passed this point and its a rare case but possibly note for the future. The other night we were struck by lightning. After a little over a $1000 of repairs to my electrical system ( not including labor, im an electrician) i got power restored but didnt think of testing my well pump. It was only running on one leg (120 v not the 240v its supposed to) . It was operating at a severely reduced rate and potentially energized my water. I dont think i need to get into why its bad and unsafe but if this happens make sure you mention to a qualified electrician doing the damage inspection that you have a well. There is alot of components to an electrical system and your well can be easily overlooked. Make sure you well pump gets megared ( insulation tested) before its put back into service. It also a good test for suspected pump failure aswell. Its a pass or fail test. If its within specs your safe if its not it needs to be replaced

You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman! Thanks to your amazing and detailed description, I felt confident enough to tackle this task, which I managed to do, start to finish. I’m now enjoying the amazing water pressure and volume of a brand new deep well pump! I owe you a big debt of gratitude.

I, for the first time, just completed this project too. I however had a bad tank that I replaced as well. The tank is likely what took the pump out. Anyway, between watching dozens of YouTube videos and a lot of reading, I was confident enough to tackle this. Just for those that are wondering, total cost was $950, and I got 2 different quotes of $2800 and another at $3100 to do this job! The whole project took about 12 hours total, 2 days off from work, and some help from my awesome brother! Lastly, and I should have led with this, but this instructable is seriously the absolute best one for this project out on the internet that I found. He really covers everything! Thanks for sharing. It truly helped to give me the confidence needed to tackle this. I saved $2,000! Full disclosure though, I am an extremely accomplished DIYer, I own many, many tools, and have a strong knowledge of plumbing, electrical, and carpentry. I occasionally help a good friend with his home improvement business.More CommentsPost Comment