Using Loctite 770/406 for repairing a pumphousing

Years and years ago, I guess it was in 1992, we were hiking in our Metzeler Indiana inflatable canoe, when (on a morning) the double action pump refused to pump. There are some pictures at the bottom of this page. Go get them!

It would exhale on the upgoing stroke, instead of on both. There's a small plug, that (when pulled) forces the pump to skip the upgoing stroke, but that plug couldn't help us at all.

I saved the hike by using the upgoing stroke for pressurising, but it was not very comfortable and we could not reach the desired pressure.
I kept the pump in a safe place. Discarding was not an issue, although I did manage to get a (not so good) single action replacement pump.
I tried to fix the old pump. The problem was that the 'Bravo double action pump' was made of a very good plastic. I guess it's poly ethylene or polystyrene. My first attempt was using Pattex tix-glue. It didn't work. The next attempt was to use epoxy.

The epoxy lasted a little longer, say: 20 strokes. Then the pump lid popped off again and that was the end of the double action again. So I put the pump away and eventually bought a replacement double action pump when it was for sale at Lidl.

Enter the friend from Borstlap. He had an old 'Loctite polyolefin bonding kit' for me. Inside were:

• a bottle with Loctite 770
• a bottle with Loctite 406
• a special brush
• some replacement nozzles for the 406 bottle
• a good manual

Application

I took the pump apart and removed all the grease. Then I removed the remains of my epoxy experiment and cleaned again.

After cleaning, I applied the Loctite 770 primer to both contact area's and allowed them to 'rest' some time.
After a few minutes, I applied the Loctite 406 glue to both surfaces of the pump housing. Next I pressed both parts together with high force, taking care that my fingers would not touch the 406 since it still IS a kind of cyanoacrylate glue...

I waited for a few moments and then decided to assemble the pump. And it worked, although it also worked after I applied the epoxy glue, some years before.
This time however, the bond lasted and it still lasts. So now I have two good double action pumps and one single action one. Which we use for inflating kiddy baths and air beds.

On the left, you see the pump. Below is a picture of the housing for the control valves. If you look carefully, you can still see some remains of the Loctite glue.

The white goo is not glue, but leftovers from the 'spruehfett' that I use to have a constant layer of tough fat around. For 'just in case'.
The pump is lubricated before every trip with silicon oil for the best operation. The spruehfett (spray-fat in english) is there only to act as a base layer.

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