Restoring a Ruston 2VH fuel pump in Australia

The fuel pump is often the part of an old stationary engine that seems least likely to survive. Its small castings become stuck, springs lose their set and elastomer seals perish, while a complete pump is seldom offered for sale. This account follows the examination, dismantling, rebuilding and testing of a mechanical fuel pump associated with a Ruston & Hornsby 2VH. The aim was to restore reliable fuel delivery while retaining as much original material as possible, rather than creating a spotless showroom exhibit.

Restoration began with a simple rule: the pump itself would be the record of how it was built. Original dimensions, wear marks and adjustment positions were treated as evidence, and replacement parts were accepted only where sound material could no longer do its job. That approach suits an independent archive. Each completed pump can then answer questions about casting details, part interchangeability and original workmanship for the next person trying to bring an engine back to life.

Finding the pump and placing it in context

The pump came to us as a largely complete assembly, although it had long been out of service. The cast body was dirty, the moving parts were locked with corrosion, and the drive eccentric had not been protected from moisture. There was no reason to assume that the seized state was permanent. Before cleaning could erase useful evidence, the assembly was photographed from every side, with particular attention to the mounting faces, drive arrangement and any surviving maker’s marks.

The 2VH designation belonged to the vertical oil-engine family built by Ruston & Hornsby, a name familiar in British workshops and export markets. Its machinery worked alongside engines from other major British builders. A revealing comparison is the story of the Crossley canal power plants, which shows how Crossley Brothers engines became central to pumping and industrial power on the Manchester Ship Canal. Reading that account beside the Ruston pump makes the pump more than a loose component; it becomes evidence of a wider engineering network.

Australian collections often reveal this machinery in the same unlikely places. A neglected unit may appear at a car boot sale in suburban Melbourne, in a farm shed outside Adelaide or among the industrial remnants of Sydney. Parts-cleaning weekends and stationary-engine shows are important local meeting points, where an experienced owner can identify a pump long before an online seller describes it accurately. The familiar Australian habit of buying, selling and trading through weekend markets also makes old engineering objects easier to rediscover, provided their history is recorded.

Recording the pump before dismantling

Before a spanner touched a fastener, the pump was photographed and measured in its assembled state. Overall dimensions, the position of the drive, shaft and mounting holes, and the arrangement of every external fitting were recorded. A simple sketch proved more useful than a crowded photograph when the cover was removed. Each part number was copied exactly, including the cast suffix. Rubber stamps, paint spots and old gasket material were left undisturbed until they could be examined under magnification.

The first inspection was deliberately slow. The casting was checked for cracks around the drive and valve chambers, while the cover, studs and screwed joints were checked for stripped threads. Plunger and shaft diameters were measured with a micrometer where access allowed. Spring free length, eccentric movement and valve travel were recorded with feeler gauges and dial indicators. A dye-penetrant check or a casting specialist’s opinion was worthwhile if a crack was suspected, since a pressure test alone cannot reveal every surface flaw.

Those records were then compared with workshop manuals and surviving examples. The detailed Ruston 2VH reference was useful for checking the general arrangement, but drawings still had to be matched to the actual casting rather than accepted blindly. Names such as relief valve, delivery valve and plunger can vary between catalogues and production years. Where the evidence conflicted, the physical pump won: its threads, bossing, wear marks and fasteners were the final authority.

Finding parts while preserving original material

Parts hunting began only after the inspection. Australian buyers commonly search eBay Australia, specialist dealers and classified services such as Gumtree, then compare those listings with salvage yards and local engineering suppliers. Online photographs can conceal a cracked casting or a turned shaft, so descriptions were checked against the dimensions already recorded. Even a genuine donor pump needed measuring, because British practice often used a mixture of BA, BSW and older Whitworth-pattern fasteners that later sellers may have mixed during an earlier repair.

This mix of standards is a practical issue for Australian workshops. Modern metric spanners do not necessarily suit these imperial fittings, and the systems are not interchangeable. A local machine shop can turn a replacement pin, bush or spacer, but it needs the material, diameter, length and thread form stated precisely. Giving the fabricator a dimensioned drawing is safer than trusting a thread-pitch guess. Where the maker had used a less common form, the thread should be identified before a new component is ordered.

Sourcing also required restraint. Sound original fasteners, covers and adjustment hardware were cleaned and retained, even when a modern duplicate was easier to buy. Replacement gaskets and washers were chosen for fuel resistance and the original joint design rather than for appearance alone. New seals were fitted only where an original material had failed. This policy reduced cost and kept the restoration reversible, a valuable quality for a machine whose exact history may still be emerging from workshops, sheds and old family photographs.

Stripping the pump and revealing hidden wear

Stripping started with a written order of operations. The external drive was photographed, its key and any washers marked, and the relationship between the eccentric and the pump mechanism noted. Penetrating oil was worked into seized areas and given time to act. Heat was avoided because it can distort a thin cast cover or alter the evidence of a crack. Small bags and labelled trays kept groups of bolts, springs and valve pieces together as the pump came apart.

The cast body and cover were cleaned with the least aggressive method that would shift the corrosion. Suitable workshop solvent, brushes and controlled heat from a warm lamp were used where permitted, while small non-ferrous fittings could be ultrasonically cleaned. Steel shafts and springs were cleaned by hand to protect their shape. Every solvent was handled under the manufacturer’s safety data sheet, with ventilation and ignition control, rather than by tipping parts into an open drum at the back of the shed.

Once clean, hidden wear became much easier to judge. The valve seats were examined for ridges, the spring seats for cracks, and the bores for scoring or oval wear. Threads were checked with a tap rather than by force, and pivots were checked for wear against their bushes. A part that appeared serviceable could still be dimensioned and compared with its new counterpart. Where a small wear allowance remained, the original component was retained; worn pivots, perished packing and damaged sealing faces were marked for replacement.

Rebuilding the fuel delivery system

Reassembly began with the mechanism cleaned and lightly oiled, using the recorded positions as the reference. Bushes and bearing surfaces were restored before seals went on, because closing the pump around a bent shaft creates a leak that is easy to blame on the new gasket. Valve seating surfaces were checked on a flat surface and lapped only until the contact marks became continuous. Excess grinding changes the setting and can erase a useful original detail, so the amount of metal removed was kept small and recorded.

The rebuilt pump was tested on a simple bench before it returned to the engine. A hand-driven rig, clean fuel-compatible reservoir and calibrated gauge allowed delivery pressure and the action of the relief arrangement to be observed. The gauge range and test pressure were chosen from information for this pump, not copied from a modern diesel manual. Dead-heading a mechanical pump can damage it quickly, so the relief setting and movement were watched throughout the run. Any change in delivery or noise prompted another inspection rather than an adjustment made by guesswork.

Only after the bench run was satisfactory was the unit offered to the engine. The drive had to turn in the correct direction, the eccentric had to reach the same travel recorded before dismantling, and the mounting faces needed clean, undistorted contact. Pipes were connected without trapping a kink or using a flexible loop that could fatigue. Before turning the engine, guards were fitted, fuel lines checked and the area cleared. Under Safe Work Australia’s model work health and safety laws and the relevant state or territory rules, hot work, fuel transfer and solvent use require a suitable risk assessment, ventilation, fire controls and personal protective equipment.

Running, documenting and caring for the restoration

Initial running was gradual. The pump was watched for leaks at every joint and for any change in the pressure indicated during the bench test. The engine was allowed to stop and restart, since a pump can appear sound after minutes but bind as a bearing warms. Where an early 2VH retains its original hot-bulb arrangement, the fuel sequence also matters: a volatile starting fuel and heavier running fuel serve different purposes. Petrol grades and ethanol availability differ across Australia, so the correct fuel should be confirmed from the engine’s instructions and local supply rather than selected by colour or price.

Once the engine had run satisfactorily, the work was recorded. Close photographs showed the completed pump with its restored and replaced parts identified. The restoration notes listed measurements, materials, part numbers, clearances and the maker’s casting mark. A reversible oiling routine and a recommendation to drain or protect the pump during long storage were added to the file. Polishing was kept to a minimum because wear marks and old paint can help date the unit, while an oil film protects the iron from Australian humidity.

If you are restoring a similar Ruston, send Peter and Rita the casting photographs, dimensions and a list of missing pieces through the website’s contact details before ordering parts. Keep original covers, tags and fasteners together, and record each adjustment as it is made. Sharing those details adds a verified example to the archive and can save another owner from buying an incompatible component or machining a part that already exists.