Raw water pump maintenance,warning,sort of.

[30boat]

My Beta 20 dates from 2003 and I've replaced the shaft,bearings and seals about three years ago.Since the boat is on the yard I'm giving the engine a thorough service .The relatively new shaft was already grooved by the seals and despite no drips from the telltale the water seal was already failing and there is some corrosion on the shaft .Maybe it was made from 304,I've no way of telling.I'm having a new one turned but I'll supply the 316 stainless steel rod this time.I'd advise people to take a good look at any pump over three years old and replace whatever is needed before a serious leak develops.
By the way I'll get standard seals from the auto parts store and reuse the stainless springs.And those little fiddly bronze screws will be replaced by 316 ss allen ones.

 

[vyv_cox]

Marine Power will supply seals with stainless steel springs at sensible prices. Yanmar seals have a spring in some sort of copper alloy whereas Volvo ones, same size, horrendous cost, have stainless steel springs.

In emergency a packing washer inserted before the seal is pressed home will move the lip to an area of shaft that has not been worn.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Vyv, do you have,a link to marine,power? I could do with some spares in stock.

 

[vyv_cox]

http://www.marine-power.co.uk I find them to be really helpful. I bought a complete service kit from them some time back, with everything on a 'just in case' basis. All the seals, O-rings etc. are separately bagged and labelled with part numbers. I needed a new O-ring the other day when changing my secondary filter, when the kit came in very handy.