Water pump not pumping

[Whaler]

Pump quit drawing water. Figured the impeller was tired so I replaced it. No change. It’s just not sucking up water either through the bucket or when it’s in the lake. Water flows through the engine when I connect to house hose under pressure and when it’s on plane in the water. Is there another fail point in the system I’m not aware of?

 

[Patchman]

Maybe you can set the bucket of water on a block or something to elevate it closer to the pump elevation. Sounds like it just isn't priming.

 

[Whaler]

Maybe you can set the bucket of water on a block or something to elevate it closer to the pump elevation. Sounds like it just isn't priming.

She’ll pull out of a bucket set inside the boat once you fill the pickup hose first. And, once the engine is shut down all the water in the block drains out. That didn’t use to happen when the pump was working correctly. I suspect the carbon ceramic seal on the pump drive is shot allowing for a less than optimal seal. My skepticism is getting in the way regarding the replacement of that seal and it working correctly. Me and pumps don’t have a good history… lol.

 

[Patchman]

At least I'm not the only one who can say it's always something! Lol.

 

[FL350]

What brand of pump is it? I’ve always had it leak out from the pickup till it gets pretty much level with the pump. When we decided to put it in an enclosed trailer, I put a valve on it so it wouldn’t soak the hauler trailer.

 

[Whaler]

Nicson V-755. I decided to drop $250+shipping on the full rebuild kit from dragboatcity.

This pump used to prime itself from a bucket setting below the cav plate and now… it’s doing nothing. I think I cooked the carbon ceramic seal one day when I fired up the boat for some carb adjustments. Noticed no water coming out after maybe 30 seconds. The hose end in the bucket sucked and attached itself to the bottom of the bucket. Never been the same since. I hope throwing this kit on it does the trick. I liked the flow rate and everybody is saying the new Ram Force Gen 2 pushes way too much water through your engine. June has been an expensive month for this Kurtis.

 

[FL350]

I had a hose suck itself to the side of the bucket myself. And yeah it takes about 30 seconds to burn up an impeller.
Since Glenwood has gone out of business we’ve sold a lot of the Ram Force. However we’ve always use the impellers from Phil Bergeron in those and the Glenwoods. He designed them and took a blade off and they work great.

 

[Whaler]

I had a hose suck itself to the side of the bucket myself. And yeah it takes about 30 seconds to burn up an impeller.
Since Glenwood has gone out of business we’ve sold a lot of the Ram Force. However we’ve always use the impellers from Phil Bergeron in those and the Glenwoods. He designed them and took a blade off and they work great.

That's what I needed to know! With so many complaining about high water volume from the Ram Force pumps, it seemed to me the remedy lies in the impeller. I thought maybe an impeller with fewer blades would do the trick. Seems you found the workaround. My Nicson pushes 25 gpm and I'm told the Ram Force pushes 60 gpm. I'll look for the Phil Bergeron impellers. Thank you for the tip!

 

[Whaler]

Update,
After replacing the carbon ceramic seal, the pump is now doing it's thing. From the looks of the integrated rubber piece encapsulating the old seal assembly, it was tired from age and possibly heat exposure as it was dry rot cracked around it's circumference. What have I learned?... the seal alone is $100+ shipping, the job replacing the seal sucks, the included spring doesn't fit, and the Ram Force pump looked better with every passing hour. It took 3 hours start to finish. Flies buzzing around my head... priceless.

 

[Patchman]

Well at least you got it working!

 

[Whaler]

Indeed. Just hope it holds up for my Brazos excursion in 10 days!

 

[73 Sanger Flat]

I think you had it fixed . I was the one having heating issues .. Finally think I found my problem ,, Dam braided line was about half collapsed going from the pump to the engine .. Hopefully that problem is fixed .. Now get back to tuning this engine better ..

 

[Whaler]

I think you had it fixed . I was the one having heating issues .. Finally think I found my problem ,, Dam braided line was about half collapsed going from the pump to the engine .. Hopefully that problem is fixed .. Now get back to tuning this engine better ..

Glad you found the culprit. Some guy mentioned (maybe this thread) that braided hose collapse can and does happen. It’s hard to duplicate for sure. Can’t help you tune your blown setup but I will say it can’t be far off from perfect. It sounded awesome!

 

[73 Sanger Flat]

Glad you found the culprit. Some guy mentioned (maybe this thread) that braided hose collapse can and does happen. It’s hard to duplicate for sure. Can’t help you tune your blown setup but I will say it can’t be far off from perfect. It sounded awesome!

Thanks .. It is not going to be fast , but it will look and sound good ,,