Fuel pump diaphragm

Posted by dennis Nielsen On 2015/3/16 6:40:38

Hello All, I have spent the past year building a new 112 square meter workshop/showroom, so work on my 1938 120 has been on the back burner. On moving the car into it there was a catastrophic leak from the fuel pump. This was caused by the destruction of the diaphragm by the alcohol content of our petrol.
My experience of fuel diaphragms is that they are made of, usually. 3 separate layers of material approx 0.3 mm thick. To date I have not been able to source,locally, this thickness of material, the thinness being 1.5 mm. My question is why are diaphragms made with 3 layers and not 1? Is it perhaps a flexibility matter?
I know that I can source the thin material from overseas, but because of the weakness of our currency the price plus courier fees makes this simple job a very expensive one!!
If anyone can supply an answer to this, I will much appreciate it.
Regards,
Dennis.