i feel your pain on your pump. i have a mid mount darley 500 gpm two stage pump on my 51 gmc 350 that has a mechanical seal instead of packing. i compete in pumping competitions and the seal was leaking which increased my draft time thus making it more difficult to quickly get primed. to be able to compete i needed to change the seal. i got the pump tore down and it is a simple cartridge seal with spring(so i thought) local seal suppliers couldnt match up the size of it SO i had to go OEM back to darley. the seal cost me $534. in the process they had all the prints and parts i.d. for the whole pump unit which included the shift box and primer assembly and supplied them to me electronically before i even had the seal. i had excellant customer service from the darley pump factory in wisconsin. i now have the seal make and # should i need to replace it somewhere down the road along with all the pump info.
the cost of the seal was $534.
the cost of the five stiches tearing down the pump was $800.
the cost to replace the bearing while i was in there $168.
the cost of taking two first places and one second place pumping awards while going up against not more than fifteen year old trucks with a 56 year old gmc PRICELESS
some people said i was :crazy: for what i wanted to do. i wanted to pump with mine and did what i had to do to get the results i desired.
my feelings are "what good is a firetruck if you can't pump with it"
if you decide to go back to darley chances are you'll get what you'll need and more which is all the info on the pump itself and in the end worth the price
