Oil Leak at K181 Priming Shaft

[ri702bill 9,405]

All:

Has any one experienced an oil leak at the Priming Lever Shaft on early 1960's Kohler fuel pumps and come up with a repair solution?

I say repair because I want to keep the priming lever and am NOT interrested in going to a low pressure electric pump. I have 2 of these, but they are differently constructed. The red oily one that had oil dripping off the end of the lever has a removable shaft held on with a small (and annoying) Tinnerman Clip. The other has the lever swaged to the end of the headed shaft. The issue as I see it is the thru-the-body shaft rotates with the lever, it is not pressed in place like the pump arm shaft. I will disassemble th red one to see if there is enough meat in the body to machine a pocket on either side for Viton O-rings. As seen in the last picture, the flat seal is split and compromised on the clean one.

Something else I saw - I like to use gasket sealer on the engine block side and a film of grease on the pump - makes R&R so much easier. It is not an OE gasket that would have a perimeter profile - it is an aftermarket one with a vertical "window" cut in it and would become a wall that would trap in the pump cavity & collect oil that could not drain back to the block. Maybe time for the Exacto Knife?? I noticed this issue last fall when I drained the straight 30 weight Rotella and filled (not overfilled) it with 10-30 multiweight Rotella for the winter. I did bump up the high speed a tad, I was onlly getting 2800 RPM at WOT with the snowblower engaged, I upped it to 3350.

Edited June 2, 2022 by ri702bill

[Handy Don 14,061]

1 hour ago, ri702bill said:

it is an aftermarket one with a vertical "window" cut in it and would become a wall that would trap in the pump cavity & collect oil that could not drain back to the block. Maybe time for the Exacto Knife??

As long as the "window" extends down to the top of the block opening, the oil will drain, right? If it doesn't, then I'd agree that knifing is the right move.

[953 nut 59,917]

2 hours ago, ri702bill said:

I will disassemble th red one to see if there is enough meat in the body to machine a pocket on either side for Viton O-rings.

I'm thinking that the soft cast aluminum body has worn a bit and you may want to drill it out for some bronze bushings.

[ri702bill 9,405]

16 hours ago, 953 nut said:

some bronze bushings

Perhaps, not all that easy as the pump lever is blocking a thru-and thru line ream. Have to do it from both sides - good potential for mis-alignment there....