Colt cylinder - Kaplan pump

Guys,

I ordered a Colt cylinder and the supposedly universal female connector seems to small for my Kaplan pump’s male connector.

Am I doing something wrong? I thought these things were universal?

Any help or advice is VERY much appreciated.

What do you mean seems to small? Do you have the cylinder in hand or are you just guessing? All of the major manufacturers use universal connectors.

I have the cylinder in hand and the Kaplin pump male connector will not fit into the Colt cylinder female connector.

I guess that is because Colt is a little rinky-dink. :)

If you can unscrew the female connector, you can replace it with one from McMaster.com. I believe the PN you need is 5012K29.

My experience is the same. I have a Kaplan large diameter cylinder and pump combo, and I cannot use the Kaplan pump male connector with my Vacutech cylinder, nor my Vacutech male connector with the Kaplan cylinder.

For Toolguy and Lampwick,

Maybe Kaplan is the culprit. What I would call a universal connector has a 5/16 OD for the male plug-in and a 5/16 ID for the female connector. Can you give your connectors a quick measure and let me know what you find?

Just one more thing I have to mention. Who ever invented plumbing size standards was one fucked up dude. I find it to be very confusing to say the least. For instance, 1/4” pipe size really means 3/8” 24 fitting. It must be plumbers union code to keep do it yourselfers confused. :)

I think the plumber’s had the measurements first, then other came along and decided they could do it better. :)

Here’s what I measured.

I have a Harbor Freight pump and bought the male end from Vacutech. It is 5/16” OD.

I have Vacutech cylinders, and they have a female 5/16” ID.

I have a Kaplan pump and large diameter cylinder. The cylinder seems to have a female 5/16” ID, and both the Kaplan pump and the Vacutech male end will plug into it and work without any problem.

The problem is with the Kaplan pump male end. As carefully as I can measure it with my Vernier caliper, it measures male 5/16” OD. HOWEVER, the Kaplan male connector only fits into the Kaplan cylinder female connector. It does not fit into the Vacutech female connector; it is too large to fit.

(Maybe it’s time to go back to Harbor Freight and move up to the digital calipers. :) )

Sounds like a tolerance problem with the Kaplan male connector. If you remove the O-ring and use some fine sandpaper on it, you can probably solve the problem quickly.

What I have done so far is just switch the Kaplan female between the Kaplan cylinder and the Colt cylinder depending on which one I am using, to fit with the Kaplan pump.

Hassle, but not too bad.

I’ll give that a try. Since the slightly smaller universal connector does work with the Kaplan cylinder, a modified male Kaplan connector should work as well.