Jabsco Toilet Pump Fix

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cindersailor

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If you ever have occasion to take the top of the pump off your Jabsco toilet beware! The 6 screws holding it on are just self-tappers going into flimsy plastic studs, on replacement these break off very easily, there is a fine line between tight enough to seal and breaking the damn things off. And no I'm not usually ham fisted with this sort of thing. Very poor engineering in my opinion and no doubt provides a regular supply of customers for their replacement pumps at £60 a go. However, I refuse to shell out for something which should be better made and have now replaced the self-tappers with propper nuts and bolts (4mm), which is what should have been there in the first place. Quite simple to do, although the nuts required a little fileing to fit properly in the spaces available. I supose these toilets are cheap for what they are and some compromise on quality is to be expected.
 
Amen! The new 3000-series loo should take care of the need to open the top cover: if yours fritzes out, do yourself a favour and get a new twistlock pump. What I've found, fitting the pump top, is to be careful with the screw-thread- you turn the screws in reverse until you pick up the thread and cautiously tighten the screws, ready to back them off and try again. It takes a little time though!
 
It's not only the top either - ours self-destructed while abroad and almost all the screw points were cracked, presumably by the Viking who fitted it.
 
Funny you should say that,i took mine apart last night because it was emptying but woulnt fill back up,couldnt find anything wrong,but had the devil of a job to seal it back up properly,i had water squirting out under the handle,i managed to sort it in the end,but still wasnt filling up,in the end i pulled off the small white pipe at the back of the bowl and pumped,water started to come out on the 4th or 5th pull????
 
mmmhhh - I am servicing mine at the beginning of each season and usually once within a season for minor things.

I used to take off the top off the top of the pump with te 6 self-tappers; never a problem, althugh I agree it appears flimsy (and I wondered each time...)

The pump handle usually moves with resistance after some use; then open the large hex plastic screw under the handle, take the whole handle out and grease the cylinder and the rubber seal at the bottom with vaseline - and Bob's your uncle

Spare parts are available easily in most marina chandlers in NL, DE, FR - and not that expensive

I love the fact that rather than fixing something messy in the pump section, I can go and just replace the whole lot for EUR 80; a few screws and you're done.

What fails a lot is the functional seal with the weight attached to it at the top of the pump. That corrodes and can sometimes only be pakced with adjustement of th eplatics around it with a file.

Yes, vacu-flush, Rheinstrom, and others build better ones, but the simplicity of Jabsco is still a plus IMHO. Plus, you actually get the spares in Europe easily compared to the other brands. (Had a RM69 on previous boat but it went out of fashion with chandlers.
 
I service mine each year and get peed off paying about £24 for a service kit.
This year whilst going through the ritual, I discovered in the chandlers a replacement pump kit whicj included all the usual service items plus the whole plastic pump housing for £21. This includes the plastic assemply that takes those self tappers.
 
Wow! I wish I had access to your chandlers. I can only assume that this was very old stock. The cheapest price I have found for the pump assembly is £60, or you can pay £79 for the privilidge of buying it from the Compass catalogue!
 
I'm always puzzled by the grumbles about Jabsco heads pumps. Mt current boat has its original pump (10 y old) - all that I have had to do to it is to replace the flap valve and the piston seal (once each). The top screw threads seem perfectly adequate provided one doesn't regard them as a test of strength. My previous boat had the much-praised Lavac which was unpleasantly prone to blockage.
 
I had the same problem - there was a time when the pumps were installed without a spring to keep the valve down. It works when new, but quite rapidly stops and becomes infuriatingly intermittant. I rang Jabsco and they sent a new valve set with spring free of charge. No problems since then.
 
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