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pneumatic powered fluid pump - does one exist?

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snorky18

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Oct 1, 2007
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Location
Southeast Tennessee
I have a lot of upcoming maintenance to do at my house on manual transmissions and differentials on various vehicles, and I do not exactly relish the thought of laying on the ground pumping multiple gallons of gear oil in by hand at the rate of 4cc per stroke (or pumping anything at all by hand for that matter).

I've been looking for a small pneumatic powered pump, and haven't been able to find one. I have a compressor powered vacuum pump. And a compressor powered grease gun. Why can't they make a pneumatic powered fluid transfer pump? Something akin to a power brake bleeder, but it would be nice if I didn't have to pump it by hand, and could just pressurize it with the compressor.

The closest I've come so far is just buying an all plastic garden sprayer filing it with gear oil, I'm just afraid it will take forever and require a lot of pumping by hand. And if anyone has a good suggestion for how to pressurize it to ~15psi with shop air, I'm all ears :)
 
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plinker

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Feb 28, 2007
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Northern Wi
A garden sprayer can be modified from what I've seen but I dont know how good it works. They added a 1/4 npt air coupler plug to it by tapping the plastic.
 
T

Thedroid

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Feb 16, 2009
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New Mexico
Buy a small pneumatic diaphragm pump. We have one at work for oil changes, and it works real well. Install a valve, and you can easily regulate the speed it runs.
 
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Dereklmartin

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Jan 28, 2012
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I don't know how well it will work with gear oil as its pretty thick but I have made a contraption to fill transfer cases at work which take regular atf. I took a nalgene hard plastic bottle and drilled a hole in the lid. I then drilled a hole in the top neck of the plastic bottle. run some clear pvc hosing down through the hole in the lid to the bottom of the bottle. Fill the bottle with the fluid and stick the other end of the pvc hose into the filler hole of whatever you are filling. Take a rubber tipped air powered blow gun and gently apply air to the hole you drilled in the bottle neck. The air will enter the bottle and force the fluid up the pvc hose and into whatever your filling. It is a simple design that works really well. *****please note, don't apply too much pressure to the bottle as it may explode, i assume no responsibility for injuries that may occur***** Other guys in the shop have made the same device out of a regular 1L oil bottle, but you really have to watch the pressure with them as I have seen guys blow them up before.
 
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TwoInch

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Mar 29, 2012
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NW INDIANA
80w-90 gear oil is the same thickness as xxW-40 motor oil. wouldnt be hard to make something to pump it pneumatically, just have to keep the PSI low.
 
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signcrafter

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May 9, 2012
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I've made a couple of these. I bought a couple of 10 dollar plastic garden sprayers from lowes. I drilled a hole in the top/side of the jug and installed a schrader valve. I've made a few different adapters from brake line and other stuff to fill diffs and trans. Works great and cost maybe 15 bucks and five minutes of work.
 
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JKady

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Jan 3, 2012
Messages
349
Location
Spanaway, WA
kiatech said:
What about this?
http://www.pbtusa.com/pdfs/70910.pdf
Click to expand...

I built one of these at work the other day (Lots of down time, nobody wants their car worked on with their crotch fruit starting back to school I guess). It's not as pretty, but it was free. I really wanted one of the PBT pumps, but $100 for it was a little hard to stomach.

Mine is pretty simple. Subaru power steering pump, cut the outter part of the pulley down and bolted it back on, welded a cheapy socket onto the nut for the drive portion. Piece of ****** cooler hose into the inlet side (reservoir removed), pipe plug drilled for some large vacuum line on the outlet. Works great and it didn't cost me anything but time, and i would bet that I have the ability to move a lot more fluid than the PBT one when you consider the pressures and volumes that a power steering pump sees in its intended application. Could spin it with a drill and really make a mess if you wanted, it moves a surprising amount with just a ratchet.

There are other pumps that would be even easier to set up, something with a separate res. would make life easier as far as plumbing it went. I'll refine the idea if I end up with something like that.
 
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Wi Fire 10

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Jan 12, 2012
Messages
109
Location
Appleton, Wi
If anyone can help me out by posting a picture of a homemade one I would really appreciate it. I'm planning on making one out of a 32oz. nalgene bottle and 3/8'' brass NPT fittings. I'm going to put in a valve into the intake side, to control pressure, and a pressure gauge mounted to the top make sure it doesn't explode. The output will be a 3/8" (id) clear tubing, a couple feet long.

For everyone concerned about safety, it is something i have considered. I've seen videos of 2liter bottles holding around 90 psi before exploding, so i'm going to make the assumption that a much thicker nalgene bottle will be ok at an operating pressure between 15-30 psi.

The main reason I want to build this is to move gear oil into differentials. It looks like the cost to buy one is between 60-150 dollars, So i'm motivated to make my own for around $15.
 
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