# Barrel Pump for Gasoline?



## Wanderer0101 (Nov 8, 2011)

Anyone have a recommendation for a barrel pump suitable for gasoline and/or diesel. Prices seem to be all over the place. I want to be safe but I don't want to spend more than I need to.


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## Jimthewagontraveler (Feb 8, 2012)

yes look for brass bushings and a fiberboard paddle system such as mounted on the stationary tanks sold by granger


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

As Jim said, if it doesn't say it's compatible for gas, it isn't. Besides the safety hazard factor, the gas eats them up pretty quickly (normally less than a year).

If you don't want to spend a lot, look at a shaker siphon. They work nicely _until you get near the bottom of the barrel at which point you just tip the barrel._


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

I have to be honest here.... I have been using a rotary one from Harbor Freight for about 6 or so years now. I use it with gas and diesel. It does weep a little at the shaft, but it just started last year... about 10 drops to fill a 5 gallon jug of gas, maybe 2-3 drops of diesel.

It isn't the $39.99 one either ( item#40844 ) ...it the one that used to go on sale for $15 with a coupon. I see they are listed at $30 now ( item#45743 ). I don't have a current coupon.

I think if I only ever used diesel it probably would never leak. Gasoline is hell on Chinese rubber seals.

I have seen Mil-Surp one on eBay go for a good price, check there.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

ZoomZoom said:


> the gas eats them up pretty quickly (normally less than a year).


Try this:
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/919605551/m/777102962

So, hating to throw out a pump and buy a new one, I found a work-around.

The pump is a short cylinder, with two end plates. Both end plates have lousy inaccurate paper gaskets to form the seal to the main pump body. One of the plates has a hole for the drive shaft that connects to the handle. There is a shaft seal of mystery polymer. So, here's the fix:

1. Make new paper gaskets that actually fit. I used plain old 20# bond, the stuff you run through photocopiers and printers. If you don't know how to make an accurate gasket, ask, it's easy. When I did final assembly, I used a very thin coating/film of wheel bearing grease on both sides of the paper.

2. The shaft seal itself was not damaged in the sense that, it had no chewed up edges where the shaft goes through. It did look like it had shrunk a little, maybe because of its exposure to methanol, maybe because it's made of mystery polymer. The seal fits in a snug pocket on the end plate. The problem is, since it had shrunk, it was now a loose fit. So, I wrapped it on the outside of the rubber seal with 5-6 wraps of the thick (yellow) teflon tape, the kind that is rated for natural gas. This made it a nice snug fit in the cast iron side plate.

3. Once you have your (2) new paper gaskets made, the rubber shaft seal wrapped with teflon and stuffed back into the side plate, everything greased up and ready to assemble, I wrapped the drive shaft with 5-6 wraps of the same teflon tape. NOTE: You must wrap the tefon tape in the correct direction, so that turning the pump handle will tend to keep the tape wrapped tight. If you wrap it the other direction, cranking the pump handle with unwind the tape and you end up with a balled up shredded mess of teflon. That also means, you can only turn the pump handle the normal clockwise direction. If you turn it backwards, you'll mess up your tape on the shaft.

4. I removed the suction pipe from the pump body, and the discharge pipe, and put new deluxe teflon on there as well.

Conclusion. All leaks in both pumps are gone. I didn't need special replacement parts imported from china, just paper and grease and teflon tape. Of course, if your rubber shaft seal is torn up, this won't work for you. The original paper gaskets for the side plates were crap. I made the first replacement gaskets by copying the original paper gaskets. They fit like crap, the holes didn't line up, etc. I should have known to just make it to fit the actual pump in the first place.

I noticed that the pump primes almost instantly now, whereas before, I often had to crank and crank and crank to get it to prime. Cost to rebuild each pump was about 0.25 worth of teflon tape. I was somewhat surprised to see that the vanes were in excellent shape, suggesting that the polymer may be robust enough to withstand long term exposure to methanol.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Thanks LT. I'm going to hang on to that as I have one more cranker pump but haven't dipped it yet (NIB).

For gas, I switched to this Fill-Rite. Works much better.


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## Wanderer0101 (Nov 8, 2011)

Thanks for all the information. Much appreciated.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

ZoomZoom said:


> For gas, I switched to this Fill-Rite. Works much better.


Those are sweet but scary expensive....

Being the "Backyard Engineer" (?) that I am, I have thought of numerous ways to tackle this problem. One I feel I should share is as cheap as your nearest junk car.

I tend to lean towards Ford products, and if you ever drop the gas tank on a fuel injected one you'll see a small 12 volt electric fuel pump mounted in a metal bracket with a little plastic sock on the bottom for an inlet screen. These are just dandy for emptying a drum full of fuel. Use a Dremel, a pneumatic cut-off tool, hacksaw, or whatever - - and trim the bracket down so it will fit into a drum opening. Now all you need is about 10 feet of red and black 14 gauge wire, two battery alligator clips, and some 5/16" fuel line (10-15 feet or so).... that is the really ******* version. If you are careful it works fine and isn't dangerous (as long as you ate your Wheaties and had your morning coffee). You can add stuff like a "dead-man switch" to make it safer (not a bad idea at all) but this does what I need it to do just fine, and I didn't really spend any money other than the new fuel line and the alligator clips.


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## eddy_dvyvan (May 8, 2012)

I know its not a pump but not knowing your circumstances ill throw this out there.

How about gravity feed?. If your using 205litre (55gal) drums then hoist them up on a shelf using a block and tackle then just open a valve and pour away. Or you could get larger tanks raised up. higher will give more pressure but a decent hose width and just above your fuel tank level will fill your tank pretty fast as it is.

This way you have no pump maintnance/cost and no reliance on power.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

eddy_dvyvan said:


> How about gravity feed?. If your using drums then hoist them up using a block and tackle then just open a valve


Great idea 

We used to use something similar to this on our farm, I hadn't used one in 20 years so I forgot about them


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## Wanderer0101 (Nov 8, 2011)

I'm pretty conscious of safety so I keep my gasoline drums about 100 feet away from any structure. They are covered but I don't have anything there to hoist them on at the moment but I like the idea. I'm going to have to think this through. Maybe a simple sort of A frame device would work.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

How about a barrel Dolly? You can keep your drum horizontal or vertical as you please. Just tip to horizontal (with some sort of bung valve to control flow) when you want to dump fuel out of it.


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## eddy_dvyvan (May 8, 2012)

The dolly idea is neat.

Although i would build one myself. That way you can weld your hose reel on it ect and also i would put an anti tip stand at the front. It looks like it would tip upright easily (which is good when you want to do that) but not so good if you bump it. And the wheels look on the cheap side. 

Making up a hose for the larger opening on the top would give a very fast flow of fuel when you want it. It looks like it should sit high enough to fill most sedans and trucks.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

The small hole is 3/4" NPT here (same in OZ?) and a 3/4" NPT hose and fuel nozzle flows plenty fast, actually. 

If you add any height at all, you speed it up a LOT!! 

55 gallons x 6.7 lbs/gallon (diesel) = 370 lbs (168Kg)... should be pretty easy to build an overhead hoist to handle the weight.


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