I put in the new parts and it still didn't work. Since I could hear air leaking out of somewhere, I put the base of the pump into a bucket of water and depressed the piston. Air came bubbling out of the connection that holds the base of the pump to the cylinder body. There's a flimsy pressure gasket that fits into the base assembly and is held together with a plastic screw-on fitting (just like a plumbing drain, if you can picture that). I guess that gasket is shot. It wasn't part of the "rebuild" kit. I put a bead of tub & tile silicone calk around the seal and screwed the assembly back together and let it set up overnight. Now it works like a charm. It's still a POS design and build if you want my opinion, but it's good to have a backup in the unlikely event that the Joe Blow ever fails.