Well after spending the better part of my day working on the catalyzer CA Technologies pump I now have it running and probably good for another year! So I will keep it and think I've got all the quirks figured out on it.
Here's what I've learned today:
Do regular maintenance on your spray pump (especially if it is an acid catalyst pump). I think I'll tear it down every six months and do a complete cleaning and replace parts on catalyst side that appear to be overly corroded. I found the check valve for catalyst was almost completely plugged. Cleaning fixed that.
The catalyst pump would not produce if hold pressure on the up stroke. Discovered the seal was loose on shaft. I enlarged the u shaped spring sections inside seal and they now tightly fit shaft, minimal leaking now. Pump rod lower has almost zero chrome left after 1-2 years.
I will order replacements and extra spares to keep on hand for next rebuild. Expect that will be a couple thousand but other than that it seems to be a new pump! Sprayed a sample tonight and it cured nicely with no glossy sheen.
I will try to immediately do a teardown next time the pump starts tripping the out of balance safety , indicating off ratio. It has been doing that since first of the year but I have pushed it to the point of coating failure, shame on me!
So I guess I'll happily keep this 2k manual pump running for years to come (hopefully). As a backup I can always disconnect the catalyst side and spray through base pump with hot pot (manually mixed batches).
Thanks for the input guys! As the owner I have the luxury of picking the equipment I run. Tools got me into this business and I still enjoy tweaking and optimizing the workflow (and buying better tools). God bless, Nathan Barnard