New noise?

[JimG]

My 1975 A4 (in a Ranger 33) was running pretty quietly (and well) when I discovered the water pump grease cup was a mass of corrosion and the pump was in rough condition (drain plug corroded, grease cup thread stripped, etc), so I bought the replacement that doesn't use a grease cup (and includes the quick access to the impeller).

Anyway, after installing the new pump, the engine immediately began 'tapping' (like a poorly adjusted valve, except louder). Water circulation is fine. I'll need to apply a stethoscope to make sure where the tapping is coming from (it's a pretty noisy object in a pretty small space!), but the boat is 75 miles away. I let the engine run about 15 minutes and the noise didn't change.

The 'kit' came with a small ziplock of blue grease, with no indication of what it was for.

Is there a chance that the slotted shaft connection needed grease? The old pump was dry there, but it was probably well worn into compliance. I trusted the 3/8 mounting bolts to provide any alignment - could the shaft connection be slightly out of symmetry and the noise will go away with some running time?

I made no other changes/adjustments to the engine, except to replace the pump to block water hose.

[Don Moyer]

Jim,

I can only recall one other occurrence of such a noise. What we think happened in that case was that the additional drag imposed by the new pump caused the idler gear between the crank shaft and the accessory drive to rattle a bit. We never found anything in that pump that would have explained the noise in any other way.

Idler gears are a known source of clicking noises at low RPM when the brass bushings upon which they are mounted wear. Due to the diagonal design of the teeth on the gear, the noise usually disappears above 1200 RPM or so, and in our experience, the noise has been 99% benign, with no adverse consequences.

However, having said all that and your boat being 75 miles away, we would rather err on the side of caution, so if you'll give me a call at (410) 810-8920 we'll arrange to have a new pump sent to you to try along with your stethoscope analysis.

Don

[JimG]

Thanks for the offer. Before going so far as trying another pump, I'll check the noise at higher RPM and do the stethoscope thing. Is it alright to run the engine briefly with the water pump removed if it comes to that?

The access is SO bad (at least for someone with big hands) that I really hope it goes away on its own!

Jim

[Don Moyer]

Jim,

It might be easier to simply loosen the two retaining bolts and see if you can get the sound to change (or go away) by tugging on the pump in different directions.

We did have a couple cases quite some years ago where the bolt holes in the engine housing were less than perfectly aligned with the centerline of the shaft. In these cases (perhaps 2 in 15 years), the only way to get a pump to settle down after replacing it was to loosen the bolts and find a location where the pump ran silently.

Don

[JimG]

Good idea. Unfortunately, I blue silicone'd the gasket plus the tight access is by reaching over the alternator. I'll try, nonetheless. I'll wear my kevlar sweater

I was a little puzzled why there was even a gasket between the pump and block. Seems like both shafts are sealed, and whatever might leak into that area (to be accumulated by the gasket) would be some mix of water and oil, depending on which seal was in worse condition.

[Don Moyer]

Jim,

The reason for the flange gasket is to prevent oil from working its way out of the aft engine housing (between the shaft of the pump and the housing, where there is no seal) and then down between the flange of the pump and the rear face of the engine housing.

Don

[JimG]

I'm mortified!

Before I admit this, I need to mention my hearing is poor in one ear, so my direction/depth perception is lousy!

I went down to the boat to try the above ideas, and the noise just wasn't there this time...until I opened the access port that lets the electric fuel pump clatter into the engine compartment!

Thanks for the help, even if the sky wasn't falling

Ok, this should be fun. Let someone top this one:

After replacing a presumably burnt out (?) starboard running light,I actually called in the yard's electronics expert last year when I couldn't troubleshoot the reason for the new light being hardly visible while the portside light was fully illuminated. They shared a common positive lead, so the problem had to be confined to only a few variables. I had swapped out the new bulb for another from the same package, only to have the problem persist.

It took the electronics guru about 30 seconds to reach for the blister package which contained the two new bulbs I had purchased from West Marine. He gently pushed back into place a portion of the label which had scuffed away from the blister pack, revealing that the voltage rating of the bulbs was not 12 volts, but 32! Only the "2" was visible when I bought it.

That little lesson cost me 50 bucks. No, the electronics guy didn't bill me, but I figured $50 was a gratuity sufficient to keep him from sharing my ignorance with others.

ps: I wonder how many 32-volt bulbs West Marine sells............

Bill

[JimG]

Many years ago, I was helping a friend move his Columbia 26 (I think it might have been my first time on a boat) and as we entered Oceanside (CA) harbor at night, we (he) was a little confused, so we figured we'd just stay close to the buoys. As we approached a smaller one with (as I remember) a red diamond on it, I went below to look at the buoy descriptions book. Just as I stuck my head out to yell "rock", we hit it dead on, at about 3 knots.

Luckily, those boats are pretty idiot proof and the keel is pretty stout. Also luckily, no one could see us in the dark!