Corking plunger petrol taps
With reference to your YWA ‘in the workshop’ feature about corking plunger petrol taps (TCM June 2022, pages 84/5) here’s a picture of my Ewarts-type tap overhaul kit.
I like to drill out the existing peened over end to the stem, which results in the narrow section being shortened – see bottom left.
On reassembly, I tin this part of the stem and also the bore of the plunger, then soft solder together. Keeping the heat to the threaded end of the plunger seems to stop the new cork getting too hot.
Chaps who advertise on the internet sell parts to help, one tap gauzes and another plunger stems in brass.
Dennis Frost, email.
Thank you, Dennis. I have one tap to recork for son Peter’s 1959 Velocette MAC. It hadn’t been disturbed this year until a few weeks ago. Its fuel tank was empty and on filling, fuel leaked – well, almost gushed – from the closed Ewarts tap. No amount of boiling swelled the cork so the tap sits on my bench waiting for my attention. Peter tells me I make a better job than he does – his way of persuading me to do the task? Flattery gets you everywhere etc…