Old Angram CO Beer Engine won't draw?

[Gadjobrinus]

Hello,

I am wanting to get cask ale going and took my old beer engine out of mothballs after, 10-12 years in storage. Wanting to clean it I was going to draw some cleaner through it but on pumping there was....nothing. Handle and cylinder move fine, but no vacuum. I seem to recall this issue back then, too, and I did something I can't recall as it worked well for a few years. Completely forgotten.

Any guesses? Cylinder, piston, ends look clean, no real obvious dirt, mold, etc. (I believe I cleaned the hell out of it and dried it fully before laying it away those years ago). I can't figure it out. Only thing I can thing I can figure out is that the piston rod seal module, or the O-rings for the end bases, may be aged, and should be replaced. Otherwise, pretty lost.

Oh, the inlet valve moves well, I think it's good. The only thing I may have screwed up is that I monkeyed around with the ball and socket joint in trying to remove it to get to the cylinder, and tightened and loosened the thing, not figuring it out. It moves loosely now, left it there, but is there some kind of adjustment that should be sought, in terms of how freely this piece moves, between the hex nut on top of and at the bottom of the ball/socket piece?

 

[MehNahMehNah]

I just bought one off eBay and in cleaning discovered the blue plastic 90° fitting at the end of the cylinder was clogged.

You can't remove this fitting as the arm hits the post that holds the cylinder in place. If I had confidence I could find a food grade stainless steel 45° fitting I'd cut the stem and put something in that can be cleaned in place. This is the design flaw in the engine when it comes to CIP.

 

[MehNahMehNah]

After rummaging through fittings at hardware stores and looking on line replacing the 90° elbow isn't happening. I found where someone else put a three way valve inline to pump cleaner through and clean the pump. I'm emulating that.