Cleaning 80 year old sump.

agfrvf

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Any tips on cleaning out 80y/o van norman 2SU sump. I don't think it was ever cleaned. So far I have used bleach, industrial purple, baking soda, a garden hose, hot water, manually scraping out the ****, filling and draining. All that and it still wreaks. Any sage advice?
 
Your probably dealing with a tary gooey substance that will take many tries at removing. Got a match?

Try a scraping at it with a 1" wide scraper to remove what you can. Soak the rest with mineral spirits, the good stuff, not the watered down stuff. May even try MEK at last resorts. Lots of Bounty paper towels, too.
 
Any tips on cleaning out 80y/o van norman 2SU sump. I don't think it was ever cleaned.

Everyone has their favorites; I like wood wedges for scraping (they're disposable), and semiliquid soap
made with lye from my stale kitchen oils... and if you have overalls, a scrub brush (the spatter will
mean the overalls need prompt cleaning).

For finishing up, the citrus paint stripper products at least don't smell bad. And, a pressure washer
beats a garden hose.
 
Lye ( or oven cleaner, sodium hydroxide) is good for dissolving fats and greases. Be careful tho it's strong. Keep some water handy in case a droplet gets in your eye and wear protection.
Mark S.
 
The sump is in the base of the machine, not much access to get in there and scrape. My VN, was not only full of gunk, but also lots of rusted chips. I gave up trying, and decided I won't use the sump.VN No. 2 light, universal table.jpg
 
I plan on using an external sump that opens easy (5 gal bucket with a bilge pump should do). However the problem is it wreaks i may try going in through the knee screw hole and the pump.
 
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