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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.

Much as I'm a fan of "do it yourself", my advice would be to order the correct fuel pump repair kit. The diaphragm flexes millions(?) of times in it's life span, and to me the risk of using something without that kind of known durability, or something incompatible with ethanol, is just too great to risk being left on the roadside. I haven't priced just the fuel pump section rebuild kit in a while, I'd guess it's about $45.

All the rebuild kits with the neoprene diaphragms that Ive seen run about $80 ( Ebay and others)

Hello, Thanks for the replies. I have now got material which is nylon reinforced Nitrile rubber which is proof against alcohol/petrol mixes. As to getting stuck along the road,I have made provision for that eventuality by installing an electric pump as a stand-by.
To change the subject,in South Africa not being spoiled for choice, we are more inclined to go it alone and repair things ourselves. Perhaps it is the pioneering spirit.There is a term in Afrikaans for this---'n boer maak 'n plan. loosely translated this is, a farmer makes a plan.
Regards.