Leaking water pump

I have a slow drip coming from the back of my water pump. Direct drive monsoon engine with the pump mounted on the front of the engine. Does this pump have a rear seal as it does not appear to be leaking from the front cover.

I was only relocating the boat and did not have enough time to investigate before I was rushing to leave the lake house.

There is a weep hole in the bottom of the water pump shaft area. You should be able to see it with a mirror and flashlight.

Yes, that is what it appeared to be. Why would it be constantly dripping?

Because the seal has failed and it can no longer hold the water back that is above it's level.

Tim,


I had a very similar problem with my raw water pump on my Indmar 351 on my 24SSV at the end of last season. I noticed it on the way to my bachelor party, boat in tow. I stopped by to see my tech on the way there and he recommended I don't use it at all and that a bearing could have gone bad. If a bearing has gone bad then I risk the whole thing going out and no water getting to my engine thus cooling it. I put it away and that ended my season (it was late Sept. anyway). I replaced it on Friday and all of my bearings were basically gone, my same tech said that if I had used it for about 5 more hours it probably would have gone out. I'm extremely glad that I didn't use it and I highly recommend getting it checked out!! Mine leaked from the center of the pump, where you could kind of see in it.

Can I run the boat one weekend at the lake house and bring it home to fix or is there a risk.

I'll have to fix it myself. Any advice? Is this quick and easy. I have a large group of friends going on my next trip.

Well, if you blow your other bearings your engine will not get water and will overheat/catch fire. I wouldn't risk it, personally, which is why I slightly ruined my bachelor party.

Tim,

Your direct drive may be easier to get to than mine, but I had my tech do it. It only had 3 bolts and a support underneath. It took alot of force to get the pump off and just popped the new one on. I already had the hoses off for winterization.

Thanks for the advise. I'll take a new pump. I have excellent access.

Tim -
Since there is a potential bearing problem. It's best to take your boat to a tech and have then diagnose the problem rather then people on here. Wouldn't want to be thinking it's one thing and have it be another.

Cody-
How did your tech diagnose the problem? Did he start your boat and look at it or just go off what you said? Did he say why the bearings failed? Did you see the bearings yourself afterwards or just take his word on it?

You did the right thing by not running your boat with the possible bearing failure being there. Wouldn't want to damage other parts and make the repair costs jump dramatically. But for your tech to say that it would have completly failed within 5 hours, he was full of it. He had no way of knowing. The bearings could have lasted minutes longer or for months.

So which pump is leaking? The OP wrote, "the pump mounted on the front of the engine."

That would be the regular engine water pump not he raw water pump. Either way they are both easy to do on a DD. If you are half way handy take a whack at it yourself. Could be fun and a great way to learn. Plus saving the hundreds of dollars in labor to have someone else do it. Just keep real good track of where the bolts came from and which ones go through the water jacket as they need sealer on them.

Water pumps are designed to eventually fail (boat and care). The bearings are self contained within the cirulating pump(non-impellar pump) and it has nothing to do with the engine. It is belt driven. If this is the case it is super easy to fix and don't waste you time at a dealer ship.

If if is the raw water pump (impeller housing) the bearing are also self contained. This is driven by the main crank of the engine and boltled to the belt pulley and the bolt also terminate into the harmonic balancer. Another easy repair. Just undo the bolt and mount a new one.

The is nothing wrong with a failed bearing and it is typically the result of a failed rubber seal in the housing. Both the circulating pump and water pump have self contained seals and bearings. Find out which one it is and replace. Could not get any easier.

BTW...i could have changed 20 circlating pumps in the amount time we have been debating this topic...it is that easy

Raw water pump is on the front of the engine. I don't have a heat exchanger.

This stuff is not that complicated. I changed the pump on my diesel as well and serviced the cooling system. The hardest part was the tight compartment. This boat has easy access and a simple pump. As long as I don't need any special tools - no problem.

I'm going to stop my friendly local dealer and take a new pump, and seals if appropriate, and fix the problem. He'll quickly run me thorough the what if's and I'll be on my way. The boats not going to sit on the lift waiting for a tech.

If I f-it up that bad, I always have my Boat US card.

"Cody-
How did your tech diagnose the problem? Did he start your boat and look at it or just go off what you said? Did he say why the bearings failed? Did you see the bearings yourself afterwards or just take his word on it?

You did the right thing by not running your boat with the possible bearing failure being there. Wouldn't want to damage other parts and make the repair costs jump dramatically. But for your tech to say that it would have completly failed within 5 hours, he was full of it. He had no way of knowing. The bearings could have lasted minutes longer or for months."

We ran it with a Fake-A-Lake and watched it leak. I only noticed got suspicious the week before because my bilge pump went out and I had a ton of water in the bilge and I didn't know why. Turns out that it was from the raw water pump after a full day on the lake.

Maybe I phrased it wrong, he didn't tell me they WILL go out then, he said they COULD, which was enough for me to not do it. My tech is a personal friend who's worked on these for years, he's done a hundred other jobs for me and I trust him. I bought the pump myself and he just installed it. He comes to my place if I ever need any work done, which is a god send with me in school and working full time. I saw the bearings after we took apart the broken pump, they had all gone out. I'm extremely glad I changed it.

Nothing wrong with a failed bearing? I can't disagree more. The average life expectancy of a bearing running at 1800 RPM is 10,000 hours. Something caused the bearing to fail prematurely. If the seal failed first what caused the bearing to fail? Was it normal wear on it or did an outside factor cause it to fail? Or did the bearing fail first which in return caused the seal to fail? A variety of things can cause the bearing to fail including installed incorrectly, loaded to one side or another, lubricated wrong, manufactoring defects, etc. So an analysis of the bearing would be needed to properly say why the bearing went out. I wouldn't want to assume it was the seal going out that caused the bearing to fail. I would take a part the bearing and see if there is water damage. If there is, then a bad seal was more then likely your problem. If
not then I would look into finding out more what caused the bearing to fail.

FYI I do vibration analysis bearing inspections for a living. So when a bearing fails I like to know why so that it can be prevented from happening again prematurely.

Nate, you should give Chevy a call and do you analysis on their water pumps b/c it seems that every Chevy truck withover 100,000 miles has to have the water pump replaced.

You could make millions!!!!!!

Why can't we all just get along...I just wanted to ride.

This is a simple plug and play to me, I'll leave the analysis to someone else.

With the constant change in RPMs at 100k miles the life expectancy of there water pumps could be met.

I think Murphy confused miles with hours.

I am playing nice.

I agree, plug and play and since it is less than $100 part, I would not think twice about slapping another one on. Now if the second one went bad quickly, then I would investigate the "why"?

I bet you can tell I'm not an engineer nor do I have the engineer mentality.

I'd LOVE to know where you found a raw water pump for $100. My pump was two hundred something on discountinboard.

Are we talking raw water pump or circulating pump.

Yes, the raw water pump is upwards of $200

Are we talking raw water pump or circulating pump.

Yes, the raw water pump is upwards of $200

maybe we're talking about two different things then.

Some raw water pumps are mounted on the crank, which is what this sounds like. Slap a new one on and go ride.

You can rebuild the pump, but I wouldn't f with it personally. IIRC $100 part, but don't quote me on that.

Resolved pump is in trunk and I will install. Cost $175. Install 3 bolts and two hose clamps. Probably will take me 10 minutes to bolt on the new pump.

To Summarize:
Yes it needs to be fixed.
No it doesn't take a "tech" to diagnose. If its leaking it has failed.
Yes it could fail on the water at anytime.
No its not worth fixing old unit.
Yes you can do it yourself in a couple minutes.
Parts cost between $150 and $200.
No it does not have to ruin your day if you can get the part.