Duco, that would be great if you could get decent bellows made for the pumps, as I believe that is the part that makes them "the biggest piece of **** ever made."
I agree, but sorry to say that the guy who worked on the design is busy doing other things ( covid?). Will try to find anotherone. Keep you posted
I had one of these pumps once; it was going to be used in my FED. My reasoning for wanting to use it is, my last name is DuPree. But, I went with a race quality, Holley pump instead. Wound up using the DUPREE on another project, where it did't last too long, so it went into the garbage. And, this was before the advent of gasahol. I have an older Carter rotary pump I keep planning to use on something, but I don't care for their push-on, electrical connections. Hope your project works out for you. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Update, After the above reply I got seriously ill with Covid and spend almost a year to recover. Than I moved house and last month I moved the buick porject over to France. Would like to pick up again. Lost track of the guy who printed the first one and will have to find somebody near me in France to start all over. Would still like to use the pump as I like its appearance. Cheers Duco
As far as material to remake the bellows, contemplate casting them. You'll need a perfect one to pull inside & outside molds from. Go to Smooth-on. They have all kinds of materials to create molds & cast with, & can probably give you a reco on what you need to get the bellows to survive. Some of their casting composites require vacuum & pressure to set correctly. I had one of the ac/dupree/walbro pumps in the late 70's, barely worked correctly for 6 itty-bitty holley 94's, & just was a problem. Went to a Carter, problem(s) solved. But they do look neat. If I absolutely had to have one for looks, I'd source out an replacement electric pump from a ~early 80's gm(cad, buick) or an 80's ford pu[both were external pumps & fairly small, ran ~ 5psi] & put in a gutted housing. Marcus...
Waiting for whoever comes up with a good material for those bellows myself.... dang shame these pumps look cool but don't function.
Hi, new to the site. Simply wanted to confirm 2 things: 1) New gas will destroy these diaphragms....we all agree. 2) The ****py diaphragms destroy themselves anyway. I just opened two unopened stock rebuild kits I have had for awhile on the shelf, and surprise, surprise....the bellows are super sticky and beginning to dissolve all by themselves. I have 3 or 4 of these pumps. It would be great if a new bellows could be sourced. GMO
You'd think the maker could just use appropriate rubber type material in the existing moulds instead of the unusable rubbish currently used.
Consider that it's very likely that Walbro never manufactured the rubber bellows for these DuPree pumps. All the rubber components (as well as other bits and pieces) were probably sourced from an outside supplier as Walbro didn't want to get into the rubber casting and molding business. The outside vendor may have gone out of business years ago and it's doubtful that the molds even exist any longer. The original material used for the bellows was not defective, per se. It just didn't meet current specification for modern fuels. As far as unused pumps and repair kits deteriorating just sitting on the shelf, the same thing happens with NOS VCRs, c***ette decks and other electronics. After sitting unused in storage for 5 or 10 years it's not uncommon for the rubber drive belts in them to have turned into a soft tar-like material. The Dupree pumps, in their day, were commonly used because they the cheapest electric fuel pump you could buy. And even back then they were considered to be temperamental and prone to early failure.
Update: I was not able to find somebody else for the printing and gave up. Bought a Carter instead. Had to reroute some of the lines but I am happy with the result. BTW I bought yet an other house back in the Netherlands . And my project is back again. Good luck all Duco
If you like the looks, why not just gut the pump and use an in tank pump to push the gas through the gutted pump on the firewall.
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