Water Pump Day

Next is the water pump.  Make sure one has a spare impeller before one takes off the access plate on the pump.  Plan ahead.  Fortunately, the PO had spare’s scattered around the boat and Peggy, in her infinite sorting wisdom, put them all in a clear plastic bag, and to my surprise, found it.  Some were brand new, and some dated back to Noah’s ark.  Also have to remember to close the raw water intake which I did.  I was sort of apprehensive to jump into this, but knew that I must, and so, just did it.  Six 8-32 brass screws later, no corrosion as was my fear and the cover plate slid right off.  Wasn’t sure how much water would come out, but that was not a problem either.

Getting the rubber impeller out without the Jabsco Impeller Removal Tool required some ingenuity.  But once again, using tools as they were not intended, 2 screw drivers applied thusly, and the impeller also popped out.  Piece of cake.  Fortunately Jabsco had included raw water intake impeller lubrication juice in a small packet the size of a MacDonald catsup packet in the new impeller box.  Lubricating the impeller, smashing it in the hole with the rubber flaps pointing the correct way, and all was done.  I had to use 3 new brass 8-32 screws to replace the deformed screw driver slots on the old screws, and to the PO’s credit, also had a small bag of them in the pump impeller bag.  Piece of cake.

A quick start of the engine, oil pressure came up, no water leaking around my new installation job, water out the exhaust pipe, and the day was done.  Beach time.