[dataway]

Here are some pics of what is inside an OEM actuator ... it was trashed so I figured I'd take it apart ... pretty much what you would expect, very simple device. Shame they weren't made of better materials, they would last forever.

Looks like Rust is the big killer, it compromises all the seals be getting underneath them.

[gto4evr]

geez, is that NOS?

you should see some of the ones I've had from my setups, it would take an forensic archaeologist to identify them.

That one looks easily save-able and worth it too since the repops fail so quickly.

[dataway]

Well ... might have been savable before I cut it apart

Shame that the rubber is sandwiched between the two haves, otherwise I could easily tig weld one back together and you'd never know ... but of course that would roast the rubber.

This piece visually was a 5 of 10 ... only reason it didn't work was rust under the rod seal ... inner diaphragm looked to be fine.

[68ragtop]

I can tell you that the replacement seals/boots for the the top are pretty crappy. They work, but everything has to be in perfect alignment or they can rub, flip over & stop sealing. very stretchy & like to slide in the rod, instead of staying in the small groove its supposed to lock in on. I screwed with that for a long time. very cheap rubber. could you clean them up & seal all the parts back together with the right stuff? I still have my orignal actuators that work, but one is missing a stud & now I took both both of the upper seals to replace the re-pops. Surprising that 50 year old rubber woks better than the new China stuff. Wait, what? No I guess its not....
I have pictures of that ordeal too.

I would imagine one drive in the rain with a missing, cracked or leaking top boot & enough moisture gets in there to destroy them.

On the bright side, your disassembled picture confirms what the orignal finish was.

[dataway]

Yep, they were definitely gold cad plated.

The problem with putting them back together is the big diaphragm goes right to the edges of the metal cans ... the OEM pieces are sealed with the metal lip of one half folding over the outside edge of the other ... trapping the rubber in between. I took it apart by using a bench sander to grind off the folded metal lip ... then the cans just fall apart ... to get it back together would means somehow clamping it, or gluing metal to rubber to metal. Only thing I can think of that might work would be something like tiny metal "door edge guard" type stuff that could be pressed around the seam on the outside to squeeze the two halves together at the lip.

Back in the day air/vacuum actuators like this were very common in industrial applications, they were probably originally sourced by GM from one of the industrial suppliers.

So ... I might actually see if I can buy some used, non-working pieces and pilfer the rod seals from them for use on the re-pops I will most likely need.

Surprised you don't see these NOS ... with failures and front end collisions you'd think they would have produced a lot of spares.

[dataway]

BTW ... I'm sure others have noticed, but very nice of Pontiac to label every non-symmetrical hide-away part with L and R and an assembly part number.

[dataway]

Just bought a "Rock Tumbler" ... going to try to tumble some of my hardware and see how it turns out. I hate blasting all the small bits, real pain. For the rusty stuff I'm going Evaporust ... then tumble and see how it turns out.