montgomery wards vac milker pump

[markct]

anyone know anything about this vac pump i just got, it was free so took it home to see what i could find out. would like to use it on my 300 taps if it will work. it says its a montgomery ward vacuum milker. says WRA-1 on the tag. cant find any info with google, it has a small glass bowl on the side like a fuel bowl on an old tractor. on the top of the housing near the exhaust port is a half inch pipe plug also, has a small magnet on the bottom, is oil supposed to go in here? or in the glass bowl on the side? any info would be appreciated never saw one like this before!

[gmcooper]

Clean it up and it might work for you. Been quite a few years since I have seen one of those and that one went down with the old barn it was in. I'd carefully take it apart and be very carefull with any gaskets. I would guess the vanes will be gummed up and possibly well worn. I can't remember who made them for MW. Someone else may know and that will help if you need parts.

[markct]

gmcooper, do ya happen to recall anything about the operation of these pumps from years ago? like where the oil goes in, the plug in top or the bowl on the side maybe? it seems to have good suction when turning it over by hand and holding my hand over the intake

[maplehound]

I have never seen one before either but try filling it full of diesel fuel for a day or so. that will help clean up any gummed up parts inside.

[KenWP]

The is a chance it''s made by Surge. A slight chance if you Google it Surge keeps coming up.

[markct]

well i got my 400 gal zero tank in place and hooked up to my pump. only pulling about 4 in vac, so went lookin for leaks, after i found them all, dozen squirell nibbles and a missing cap on a star fitting, and a tap that wasnt in the tree! got back to the tank and to my surprise she had 18 inches vac on the gauge, i quickly vented some vac off since i have been warned these tanks wernt designed for more than about 15 in vac. so i ordered a vac relief from mcmaster carr so i wont have to worry. but it seems to be working well, and boy did the sap flow on that line. usualy per tap this line is about the worst performing, well today i had almost 2x the sap per tap that my others on gravity had! im hooked on vac for sure!

[kumru]

we recently had a customer come into our place with pictures of this same unit. for what i can tell, the oiler is on the top. typically a vac pump like this was used for single milking systems, 15" vac. there abouts, giving about 10CFM of flow. the unit would draw oil out as it was under vacuum there by oiling the veins and bearings. you will want to use very low weight oil, if possible find a dairy supply company to get a 2.5gal container (smallest available for this type of unit). i am looking into rebuilding these units, will share what i find for parts availability. also worth noting, to replace this unit, you are looking around 1200 bucks, so try not burn it up, fairly sure you could sell it for 500 in working condition.

[markct]

yea well what i did running it all season was every day i poured a few oz of oil in the pipe plug on the top, and filled the thing that looks like a tractor fuel bowl on the side with oil, used atf cause i had it on hand. pump ran cool, just barely warmed up and kept 15 in vac on my 300 taps, it seemed to use about 2/3 of the little bowl of oil running 16 to 18 hours a day.