I am helping a friend with a very early 1940's Buda 6 cylider diesel-generator used to run a well pump. The pump is being run perhaps a few times a year. This system was being serviced by another close friend of his, who unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago. So the unit has been apparently neglected for some time until it failed to start and here I am. Even though this is my first exposure a Buda diesel engine, I am reasonably familiar with engines, mechanics, and automotive engineering in general although I am an EE by trade.
The subject is the priming (primary, lift, transfer) pump. Apparently the starting procedure requires to operate the priming pump manually by a lever until one feels significant increase in resistance of the lever. Last time the unit was attempted to be used It was completely seized with and totally INOP. All I have is the pump itself (open, removed from the injector pump).
Subjected to soaking with PBblaster, gentle mechanical persuasion, application of heat-gun, and a fair amount of time, I managed to disassemble the pump piece by piece (manual lever actuating rod, ca-actuated toggle, two pistons, springs), removed the valve assemblies, and started cleaning.
The basic pump assembly is straightforward and i understand the basic idea. However, during the initial fit-check I noticed, albeit to late, that the inlet and outlet poppet valve springs are not the same. Both springs have the same length (uncompressed) but one is a stronger than the other. I expect hat the weaker spring belongs on the inlet side and the stronger one on the outlet side (?). So far what manuals I have been able to find say basically "leave the pump service to experts" with no additional info or parts breakdown. Thus I would like to ask the experts here the following:
Q1: Does the stronger spring belong to the outlet side?
Q2: Is there a preferred/recommended solvent for cleaning the fuel varnish? I used PBblaster, diesel fuel, kerosene, and carburetor cleaner and soaked the unit for hours. The diesel crud is pretty tenacious and barely soluble in all solvents tried so far.
Thank you all very much for any help, suggestions, and any other pertinent information that you could supply.
