Photography courtesy of the author.
It’s hard to walk through a swap meet without coming across at least a few antique tire pumps scattered amidst the old carburetors, tools and assorted parts.
After all, in the early days of motoring, one of the most common jobs a car owner would be confronted with was repairing or replacing a tire, often while on the road and sometimes more than once, depending on the length of the journey. Every driver had at least one tire pump on hand, and sometimes more than one back in the garage.
Gradually, technology yielded more reliable tires, and the leather cups at the heart of the operation of these pumps dried out relegating them to attics and junk piles.
But if you like old cars—especially those from the Thirties and before—or you’re a beginner wrench turner, I encourage you to purchase one of these tire pumps. They’re typically inexpensive (between $15 and $45 at swap, more at online auction sites), and because they were made to be maintained by car owners, they’re easy to work on.
I found the one here at the annual Rhinebeck Car Show and swap meet this past spring. It’s of the single-action type—rather than the kind with two or even three barrels—and 21 inches tall, with a base measuring 8 by 2 inches. The 1-3/4-inch O.D. cylinder is seamless and topped by an octagonal cap. There are no identifying markings on it.
Before buying, I checked to be sure that the cap could unscrew. While there’s very little with these antique tire pumps that could get in the way of refurbishing them, I figured that, with all the options I had to choose from, I might as well start with one that I could at least take apart easily.
As with almost every one of these old tire pumps, the plunger slides, but little to no air puffs from the connector, the rubber hose is dry rotting, and almost all of the red outer covering has chunked off.
I began the refurbishment by unscrewing the top cap and removing the plunger assembly, which included a spring and two large differently sized flat washers sandwiching the worn leather cup and a lock washer and a square nut.
I intended to salvage as much of the hardware as possible, not only because I wanted to keep an original look, but because I knew that, while things like hoses might have been fairly standard, threaded connectors might not have been.
Because there are very few resources available for those refurbishing old parts and tools like this tire pump, I made sure to snap pictures of every step along the way. These, and a couple parts and tool catalogs of the era, would be my only guides for reassembling the pump correctly. I took confidence in the knowledge that, though I may have to fabricate worn parts that are no longer available, these pumps had been intended to be serviced by their owners.
So, with an adjustable wrench, I attempted to loosen the brass nut connecting the hose to the base. But that proved clumsy and began to chew up the soft metal. I cut away the hose, to avoid wrangling with it, and switched to channel lock pliers, slipping a small square of rubber sheet between the plier jaws and the facets of the connector. With some elbow grease, the connector broke free and unscrewed.
I set these components, including a red washer that had been revealed—perhaps a “Red Core Washer” manufactured by the Stevens company (see catalog page below)—aside.
Next, I moved to the other end of the hose. I placed the faceted brass hose-clamp collar into a vise—protected with the small piece of rubber—with the knurled hose-to-tire connector facing upward, and unscrewed the two components from one another.
This revealed a rubber “acorn-type” washer (see catalog page below) seated inside an intermediate connector that, together with the brass collar, made up the hose clamp assembly. I prized this washer out.
Then, once again using a piece of rubber to protect the components from the jaws of the channel locks, I unscrewed the threaded intermediate connector from the faceted brass hose collar.
With the blade of an X-Acto and a dental pick, I scraped away residual hose from the intermediate connector’s stem.
At this time, without the stem of the intermediate connector pressing against the insides of the hose, the faceted brass collar twisted off easily.
I retained the parts of the newly disassembled hose clamp, along with the rest of the tire pump and photographed them as a record of the way they go back together.
This left only the hose-to-base connector yet to take apart. This connector was comprised of two parts, the threaded male part that screws into the base, and the crimped brass collar that joins it with the hose. Again using the vise and the small piece of rubber, I attempted wrenching the two apart, relying on brute force to hopefully shred the old tube, but that failed, as did trying to uncrimp the collar with a flathead screwdriver.
Desperate times, and all that… I opened the windows of the shop, donned protective glasses and a mask, and fired up the BernzOmatic hand torch. I figured the rubber would burn out before the brass would melt. The ancient rubber caught fire and glowed as I moved the flame around the stub of the hose.
It smelled awful. I’d use the torch only long enough to relight the rubber every now and again because I didn’t want the high heat of the torch melting the brass.
After a few minutes, most of the rubber had burned away and what was left crumbled when touched with a dental pick. The collar and the connector, its ribbed stem now free, fell easily apart.
Next I shifted my attention to the pump’s cylinder. Inspecting the insides with a small lamp I saw that old oil had congealed on the bottom, and there were flecks of what was likely part of the original leather plunger cup.
I didn’t want any of this being injected into my new Firestone bias plies, so, using a pressure washer, I flushed it all out. Be careful: Firing the jet of a pressure washer into such a constricted space can cause the tube to be wrenched from your hand, and the jet can damage skin.
Finally, I went over all the parts with a cloth dipped in 3-and-1 oil, and where needed, used a brass-bristled wire brush to remove accumulations of thicker gunk. With an old sock wrapped around the end of the plunger, I swabbed out any leftover gunk from inside the cylinder as well as any residual water.
With the tire pump fully disassembled and cleaned, I laid out the parts in the arrangement that they belonged in and snapped a photo for reference.
When I checked my library of antique automobile restoration catalogs, I saw that reproduction tire pumps are available, but these are non-functioning and only for show. They lack the check valve that would prevent air from rushing back out of the tire and into the pump every time you draw the plunger back up.
Interestingly, according to some of the catalogs, the tire pump that was part of the original Ford Model A kit also lacked a check valve, but I can’t imagine how they would have worked. Perhaps someone out there can explain.
My tire pump was missing the inner plunger in the hose-to-tire connector necessary for pushing open the Schrader valve, and, of course, none of the rubber washers were reusable, so I purchased an “adapter” that included all of these components and a check valve. This adapter, along with a new rubber hose, with a “cloth-covered appearance,” cost about $30.
I slipped the original faceted brass hose clamp down over the new hose and then carefully worked the threaded stem of the adapter into the opening of the hose. I was prepared to use a little 3-in-1 oil if the going got tough, but I didn’t need to. Then I pushed the faceted hose clamp back to the end of the hose, creating a tight seal between the hose and the threaded stem of the adapter.
Because both the adapter I purchased and my original hose-to-pump connector were equipped with a check valve, I had to remove the BB-sized ball from the connector. This was easily accomplished with a punch and a hammer.
I inserted the punch in the stem of the connector, placed the threaded end of the connector on the workbench, and gently tapped the punch with a hammer, which expanded the crimped opening in the stem enough to allow the ball to fall out.
Careful not to damage the new hose, I gradually pushed the stem of the connector in by working it back and forth and turning it slightly.
Then I set about the part of the refurbishment that had worried me a little: replacing the leather cups on the plunger.
I had searched online several times, looking for cups that would fit, but they don’t seem to reproduce them for these old car tire pumps. So I checked out websites selling rebuild kits for bike pumps—these seemed too small—and those selling parts for fixing water pumps—these were too large. And all of these cups, both large and small, were usually sold in greater numbers than I would ever use and at a higher cost than I was happy with.
Even if I had found a replacement cup made to fit the inner diameter of my pump, I knew that a tight seal would be essential for the pump to work effectively, so I decided to make my own.
I bought a piece of scrap leather—about the 1/16 inch thick. If I had an old belt, I might have been able to use that instead. Then I had two choices for making the pattern of the leather cup: upend the tire pump cylinder and press it hard into the leather or trace around the larger of the two washers that make up the plunger end assembly.
Using a silver Sharpie—great for seeing marks on dark material—I chose to do the latter and then cut on the traced line with a pair of sharp shears. It’s important that you stay on the line—going too wide or too narrow will result in difficulties with pump sealing or operation.
I repeated this once more and then cut an “x” in the center of each new cup. I soaked the two new cups in Neatsfoot oil for a few minutes, both to condition the leather and to provide lubrication and a tight seal for the plunger.
Then I slipped the spring back onto the plunger, followed by the smaller flat washer, which stopped at the end of the threads a just few inches down. Now here’s the trick: It would be nearly impossible for me to have cut a circle that would fit the inside of the cylinder perfectly, but overlapping two washers would be likely to even out any gaps or high points.
Locating the “x” in the washers over the end of the plunger rod, I forced them down into place. It was a tight fit, and they didn’t lie flat initially, but when I sandwiched them between the larger washer and the smaller one, dropped the lock washer and nut into place, and tightened it all down, they flattened out.
I fed the plunger assembly down into the cylinder and screwed the hose to the base. Using a slightly underinflated tire as a test, I screwed the hose-to-tire connector onto the tire’s valve and pumped. While it’s not easy going—pulling against the check valve is hard until you get above the inlet hole at the top of the cylinder—I was able to add 2 pounds of air in just a few moments.
Now, I have given new life to a great old tool, and have a pump I can count on when I’m out and about in my ’31 Ford speedster.
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