Water pump/ impeller issues

[megalomaniac]

So... rain moving out tonight, plans to fish the marsh tomorrow. Pulled the boat out of storage unit at 2p to redo some wiring connections on the trailer which the saltwater has consumed.

Boat has been on storage for 5 weeks. Hooked up the fuel line, primed the bulb, and motor fired off 1st crank. Revved it up and motor pissing good. Was going to let it run for 5 minutes, but motor gradually stopped peeing. Unhooked tube from water jacket to the 3way going to temp sensor and pee outlet, and almost no water coming thru. What was dripping thru was HOT. Started troubleshooting, blowing compressed air thru water jacket, and realized there was no water circulating out the vents in the foot ...

I replaced impeller almost 1 year ago, when I bought the boat, but figured that was where the problem had to be. Dropped the foot and found the impeller to be damaged

 

[megalomaniac]

Luckily, I had a spare impeller in the garage and installed it. Replaced the foot and reconnected the linkage. Started the motor back up and it was pissing GREAT! BUT, it was making a horrible racket from the foot.

Talked to a buddy and he figured I installed the fins on the impeller the wrong direction... so I tore it back apart

 

[megalomaniac]

After dropping the foot for the second time, I found the fins were oriented the same way the last impeller was. BUT, I found a chunk of rubber in the motor housing about the size of a pencil eraser from the last impeller. I figured that was the problem with the racket and removed it, then reassembled everything.

Started the motor back up, and the racket is gone... but impeller is not circulating water to the engine or foot .

Too exasperated to tear it back down again at the moment. Anyone have any ideas? I'm sure it's something simple and stupid... wondering if there is another piece of rubber from last impeller obstructing something....

I'm thinking about just buying an entire new water pump housing and gaskets ($75 for OEM parts) to have ready to install when I tear it down yet again.

Fishing is out tomorrow, didn't get to rewire the trailer either.

 

[7mm08]

What the heck? Sorry above my pay grade as they say.

Luckily you weren't in the marsh when this went down.

 

[megalomaniac]

So... slept on it and felt less frustrated today, so I redid the corroded connections on the trailer and got all lights working.

Pulled the foot for the 3rd time and when I opened the cover of the water pump housing, the key was laying in the bottom of the cup between fins. Good grief... guess I dislodged it when I reseated the impeller with last disassembly. There was also a 2mm chunk of rubber on the plate. So I pulled the plate and found a couple more tiny chunks of rubber in the bottom of the housing. Blew out the entire thing with compressed air, then reassembled the water pump with new gasket and reinstalled the foot.

Started the motor up and pump was working great, tons of water circulating out the foot, but pee stream was weak. Took apart the 3 way connection coming from water jacket to pee outlet and water temp sensor and found a couple small chunks of rubber obstructing the outlet.

Reassembled the 3way and success!

Really wondering why the 1 year old impeller failed to begin with... like only 20 to 25 trips and surely no more than 50 hours on the impeller.

 

[megalomaniac]

What the heck? Sorry above my pay grade as they say.

Luckily you weren't in the marsh when this went down.

REALLY lucky it failed in my bucket of water and not the marsh!

But that's why I always get my boat out of storage and start it up in the driveway the afternoon before making the 85 mile trip to the coast.

Just frustrated that what should have taken me 45 min to fix ended up taking 3 hours and costing me an entire day of fishing today.

 

[scn]

Shallow water operation in the marsh is the worst possible on impellers. The sand, ground up shells, etc that we suck in operating shallow takes a toll.

 

[megalomaniac]

I figured out what toasted my impeller... user error...

3 trips ago I launched my boat, tied it off with motor running and peeing and left the motor running to warm up (like I always do). Motor trimmed partway up after launching. As I parked the rig, i got a terrible crap attack. Hobbled to the bathroom at the launch, took care of business, and when I got to the boat, the high temp alarm was going off (never done this before). Motor shut down just as I got into the boat. I trimmed the motor all the way down, waited a few minutes, then cranked the motor. Started right up and was peeing fine. Fished that day and twice since then. But I'm thinking as small as this boat was, I had the motor intake submerged when I was in the boat, but when I got out, the intake came out above the water line and got inadequate circulation/ cooling.

At least I didn't have a crap attack while out in the marsh fishing. been there, done that, and it wasn't pretty.

 

[7mm08]

It sure does ! I was leaving a " creek" that was 150 yards wide running to the main river and was ONE ANGSTROM off on my previous chart course and dammmed if I didn't find mud !!! But luckily no oysters etc.

Glad you got it diagnosed, fixed , and it didn't take a UROLIFT & and pecker checker to fix it!!

 

[7mm08]

I figured out what toasted my impeller... user error...

3 trips ago I launched my boat, tied it off with motor running and peeing and left the motor running to warm up (like I always do). Motor trimmed partway up after launching. As I parked the rig, i got a terrible crap attack. Hobbled to the bathroom at the launch, took care of business, and when I got to the boat, the high temp alarm was going off (never done this before). Motor shut down just as I got into the boat. I trimmed the motor all the way down, waited a few minutes, then cranked the motor. Started right up and was peeing fine. Fished that day and twice since then. But I'm thinking as small as this boat was, I had the motor intake submerged when I was in the boat, but when I got out, the intake came out above the water line and got inadequate circulation/ cooling.

At least I didn't have a crap attack while out in the marsh fishing. been there, done that, and it wasn't pretty.

You and I can never fish together!!! We sound too alike in " 50 ways to screw up your trip" ! Ha!

Great story! Lucky you had a toilet nearby or you would be running off into the marsh or having to use the old boat bucket or gunnel toilet!

 

[TNLynn]

I figured out what toasted my impeller... user error...

3 trips ago I launched my boat, tied it off with motor running and peeing and left the motor running to warm up (like I always do). Motor trimmed partway up after launching. As I parked the rig, i got a terrible crap attack. Hobbled to the bathroom at the launch, took care of business, and when I got to the boat, the high temp alarm was going off (never done this before). Motor shut down just as I got into the boat. I trimmed the motor all the way down, waited a few minutes, then cranked the motor. Started right up and was peeing fine. Fished that day and twice since then. But I'm thinking as small as this boat was, I had the motor intake submerged when I was in the boat, but when I got out, the intake came out above the water line and got inadequate circulation/ cooling.

At least I didn't have a crap attack while out in the marsh fishing. been there, done that, and it wasn't pretty.

I would run a compression test on the motor. If one gets hot enough to shut down, i would wait 30 minutes or more to let it cool down. Cold water hitting super hot aluminum is what warps a lot of things.

 

[shrimphead]

glad you got it going now go fish. next time you change impeller i would change the housing too