Hey Guys,

I finished making my hydrolastic pump yesterday (pics to come later) and decided to give it a try on my other deluxe which is sitting there waiting on its turn for restoration. The car had been off the road for about 10 years and the suspension had dropped so I thought an ideal candidate for testing.

The drivers side was hooked up and pumped up just fine great the pump works!
I hooked up the passenger side and pumped - the back went up but not the front so I checked the pipes underneath to see if they were dented or crushed but all was good. so I tried to bounce it at the front and rear to see if the fluid would take up but no good. so I opened the bonnet to see if I could see anything odd in that area. I noticed that at the top of the displacer / subframe area there was a little bit of dampness. was it old? I couldn't remember if it was there before or not - so I did the stupidess thing I ever did in my life - and as a maintenance/engineereing type person should have known ALOT better.

I looked down the opening where the hydro hose goes down into the displacer and wiggled the hose. What happend then was so quick I could have done nothing to stop it or get out of the way- 300 psi hydro fluid hit me square in the face as the hose let go from the displacer I was had glasses on so that stop the bulk of the pressure but my eyes and nose were filled with 1000 years old rusty fluid which I had to blindly move around to find the tap to rinse the stuff out.

I am ok and continued to rinse my eyes in the shower for 20 minutes to be sure but Ijust thought I would highlight the dangers of these old hydro units - luckily I have spare displacers but I could have been in a much worse state. So take care with these things and NEVER EVER stick your head above something that could let go and hit you.

But the pump really did work brilliantly

Gig

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67 Deluxe - Red and white
69 Deluxe - Sugercane Grey

Yep those hosecrimps are getting old now so watch it.
It's possible to cut a thread on the old displacer barb then screw a fitting on with a regular hydraulic hose (Pirtek etc).

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

yeah john k (kdg engineering) lost part of his vision when a hydro line whipped him in the eye

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

Shivers mate - hope you are ok. I empathise with you as I did the same thing cleaning out a dellorto with carby cleaner - shot it down the emulsion tube hole however was looking into the progression hole cover and a stream of fluid hit me in the eyes...same wandering blindly trying to find a tap...lmao

Hope your eyesight is ok...good luck with the hydro units.

Hooroo

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Rob Forsyth
Miniot!!

must be teh week for getting stuf in eyes, i got a piece of metal in mineon monday and its only just healed, stoopid docter scratched my eye, cos she put the rong stuff in to make it go to sleep

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-jamie-
1963morris 850
1965 solid side van
1994 rover racecar

Hi Gig,
I'm pleased to hear you escaped serious injury. I recently wrecked a Hydro 850 and had all the front subframe disconnected, including the hoses. I was lifting the body off the subframe but the subframe came up with it, so I pryed the subframe and it dropped. This forced fluid, under some pressure, out of the disconnected hoses into my face and all over my workshop roof! As you say, the system deserves some respect. I agree with you that it stinks too, yuk!

Al

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1967 Cooper S - new front bearings to do.
1965 Cooper S shell - Slow progress. No time or money!
1966 Deluxe- next rustoration!
Mk 2 & XJ6 Jags. Less said the better.

glad your ok!
i cut an austin 1300 in half a while back with an arc welder@140 amps with a 2mm stick that stuf really stinks when its on fire too!!

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speed costs....how fast do you want to go...