I have a two banger air pump - "rated 30-80 gallons" - does not even say what brand and I cannot remember for the life of me.

It was working fine, but I had to move my 30 gallon tank to another room. When I reattached it back up, one of the outlets was not blowing any air. The other is doing fine. So I guess I need to take the sucker apart and find out if I can salvage it.

Anyone ever had this happen? Is there an easy fix that you have had? I love taking things apart, but I am not real big on getting all the pieces back in when it comes time to put them back together!

Just had to buy a new heater - I do not want to hafta buy a new air pump, now!!!!

easy as pie!

just unscrew the four (or however many) screwss underneath. then pull the rubber base off (if it has a rubber base, most do). youll see two magnetos that cause an arm to vibrate back and forth. each arm is connected to a "plunger".

one of 3 things has happened:

1- the plunger has slipped off of its mount. (easily fixed, just re-connect it)

2- the plunger has a crack/split in it that air is leaking from (in this case, youll need to take the split plunger to your lfs and see if they have a replacement for it. or, order online but, you dont have a brand name. most replacement plungers fit most models, though.)the replacements are very cheap.

3- loose connection on one of the magnetos (re-connect or secure with some solder)

i only listed the fixable problems. you may find that it isnt fixable but, most likely not.

hope this helps!

Yeah, well I had already opened it up and determined that the diaphram was still in one piece, and there were no obvious problems, so I decided to dive in and dismantle the thing.

There are a couple of little tiny rubber flapper valves and gaskets (less than 1/4 inch and thinner than paper)- and one was out of place. I have no clue as to WHY it was out of place all of a sudden, but it was. And, in the process of putting all those teeny weeny pieces back together, I dropped one. It was gone forever to my eyes, so I went to the store and bought a rebuild kit for 2 bucks. It had those tiny pieces of rubber in it, plus new diaphrams, which I thought I would replace just because I had them. In putting it back together, I ripped one of the new diaphrams, but managed to get a new one and one of the old ones back on. Some tweaking of nuts and screws and sliding things around a bit, and it is not only working again, it is as quiet as it was in the beginning!!! TRA LA! and YIPPEEE!!!!!

Daryl had stolen two of the screws that attach the base on, but they are standard and I found replacements in the screw drawer in the basement. Silly cat.

Thanks for the encouragement. I hate tiny pieces and non-obvious failures!

OH YEAH! i forgot about those little rubber tabs. *slaps self on forehead*

kudos on the diy repair!