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Last December, near the start of our trip down the ICW, I noticed the weep hole on the coolant flange pump was showing some moisture. Not wanting to rebuild it onboard, I ordered a whole new pump and installed it after Christmas.
Fast forward to May. After our recent HX failure, I've been keeping an eagle eye on the temperature. When I noticed it starting to creep up from its usual rock-steady 180, I started checking. I found the coolant level was down by over half a gallon!! A quick check turned up the culprit. The 5-month old flange pump was leaking from the weep hole at a rate of 2 drops per second!! I nursed the system to our next anchorage, adding another half gallon of coolant over the next four hours.
Once anchored, I got to work. I got out the old pump. I didn't have a flange pump rebuild kit onboard ( why would I need one with a new pump?), so I filched the seals from a pedestal pump rebuild kit and got the old pump working.
But why did the new pump fail so soon? I have it intact for a post-mortem when I get back, but I'm at a loss. At less than 5 months and about 300 hrs on it, it shouldn't have failed at all, let alone as abruptly as it did.
Fast forward to May. After our recent HX failure, I've been keeping an eagle eye on the temperature. When I noticed it starting to creep up from its usual rock-steady 180, I started checking. I found the coolant level was down by over half a gallon!! A quick check turned up the culprit. The 5-month old flange pump was leaking from the weep hole at a rate of 2 drops per second!! I nursed the system to our next anchorage, adding another half gallon of coolant over the next four hours.
Once anchored, I got to work. I got out the old pump. I didn't have a flange pump rebuild kit onboard ( why would I need one with a new pump?), so I filched the seals from a pedestal pump rebuild kit and got the old pump working.
But why did the new pump fail so soon? I have it intact for a post-mortem when I get back, but I'm at a loss. At less than 5 months and about 300 hrs on it, it shouldn't have failed at all, let alone as abruptly as it did.
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