leaking water pump

[rogers jolly]

My 1977 Oday 27 has an atomic 4 that started leaking water from the water pump. Upon inspection, I found the water to be leaking from a small weep hole on the under side of the pump housing near where the pump attaches to the engine. Does this indicate that the seal by the impeller side of the pump has failed? Should I replace both seals or is it better to replace the pump? Can the engine still be run or is this a fix it now situation?

[Marian Claire]

Yes Yes No Yes No. I think you have diagnosed the problem. Go ahead and replace both seals, the inner, water seal is the hard one to remove. I do carry a spare pump but seals are like 30$ and a new pump is much more. I have and I assume others have run with a leak for a long time. Watch the temp and the flow at the exhaust. Rebuilding the pump is not hard once the get the seals out. Dan S/V Marian Claire

[sastanley]

Easy!

Ditto what Dan said. I rebuilt my water pump (among a few other things) this winter.

My recommendation would be to call up Ken here in parts and order the seals ($30), a new impeller ($30) & maybe the extended mounting bolt ($20), and the flange & plate gaskets ($6). One weekend after using the boat, plan an extra 45 minutes to remove the pump (& clean up the water that leaks out into the bilge) and take it home. Unless you run into problems, you should be able to rebuild it in one evening during the week. You need snap ring pliers to replace the impeller (also sold at Moyer's site if you don't already own some).

Be careful removing the seals, try not to ding up the pump housing and scratch or score it. Tear the leaky seals up instead! When installing the new seals, the part numbers stamped on the seals should face each other.

Keep the old impeller as a spare, & take your pump back to the boat and re-install, giving yourself 30-45 minutes. Sometimes the installation/removal is longer depending on the access to the pump. Although I personally haven't done this yet, most say the special 'extend-o-bolt' Moyer sells for the bottom of the pump is well worth the money to ease removal and installation hassles. I have a Catalina 30, so I have pretty good access to the back of the pump & with a 6" extension I can get a socket on the bolt without much trouble.

Here is a link to all the pump parts.

Good Luck!

[pallen58]

Leaking pump confirmation

After my fuel system re-build and some new ethanol free gas I was able to get the engine started. It ran really well and I had no leaks in the fuel system.
I now have a leak in the water pump. I think it is coming from the weep hole.
From various threads it appears that I either need to re-build or replace. This is an older pump with the grease cup.
Attached are pictures. It is leaking from the hole closest to the engine side.
I also saw one response where they thought the seals, if it is the seals, would re-seat if you pinched off the exit hose for a few seconds. Any thoughts on that?
How hard is the re-build? I'd like to know my options quickly as the skipper is wanting to start her sailing season.

[joe_db]

If that plastic filer is in the fuel line, it needs replacing with metal ASAP

[marthur]

Here is a short pictoral of the waterpump rebuild. You can see there isn't too much to it. The hardest thing is getting the old seals out without bunging up the pump.

Waterpump Rebuild Pictures

One suggesting I have heard is to use a little permatex when putting the new seals in. They are supposed to seal with due to the pressure fit, but the permatex will help with any imperfections in the surface.

Good luck!

[pallen58]

Leaking water group

I am still new to all of this but I guess I am going to go with the re-build. I had just bought the engine re-wire kit so the skipper isn't likely to let me buy a new pump. Maybe when I go to put the fresh water cooling on I will get a new pump as well. When I got the boat it had the plastic fuel filter on it and all the 4 stroke outboards I have had had those. Why is a metal one important? Thanks for the replies.
Pat

[joe_db]

Per ABYC and USCG regulations, only metal filters are permitted below decks. The plastic filters do not meet the standards for exposure to fire, among other things. Moyer sells a couple good filters

[gary gerber]

In following this thread I notice everyone seems to have an oberdorfer water pump while my 1970 Morgan 33 with it's original A4 has a Jabsco pump. I have replaced the impeller in my 35 years of ownership but with no other problems. It appears that model Jabsco is no longer available ( while the impellers # 45280001 are from several suppliers ) so I assume I should p/u an Oberdorfer as a bolt on replacement.

This writing is more or less an entry of my thoughts as I read the thread.

[marthur]

The oberdorfer pump is a bolt on replacement, but I would get the MOYER version. The Moyer pump has self-lubricating bearings and does not need to be greased among other improvements.