Hi all!

I have a leaking raw water pump on my Volvo Penta MD17C. I've replaced
the front plate gasket already, but that did not help.. After a more
close inspection, I saw that the water is coming from behind the
impeller housing.. I've called around to see how much this is going
to cost me for someone do it for me... it didn't look good.

I've decided to pull the pump off myself. I already ordered all the
parts I need: new shaft, 1 water seal, 1 oil seal, new face-plate
gasket.. Impeller.. $50 worth of stuff..

Is there anybody who did this before? Do you have tips?

Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you,
Ronald.

Ronald wrote:

I've decided to pull the pump off myself. I already ordered all the
parts I need: new shaft, 1 water seal, 1 oil seal, new face-plate
gasket.. Impeller.. $50 worth of stuff..

Is there anybody who did this before? Do you have tips?

You may want to have the faceplate re-surfaced if it has been scored or
scratched. Otherwise, just use a good waterproof grease and assemble
carefully. The shop manual will help. I suspect that the same pump was
used on quite a few of the old MD series engines so perhaps you can pick up
the manual easily.

In times gone by I learned that grounding out, and subsequently pumping sand
or dirt through while trying to get off, eventually made re-building the raw
water pump a requirement. That's how the face plate got scored.

Note that I sometimes find myself in places where the charts just don't cut
it. Also note that I sometimes also find myself just not paying enough
attention.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/

The repairs should be pretty straight foward.

Once you have the pump off you will remove the face plate, then push the
shaft coupling in until you can get to the impellor securing screw or pin
(it's usually a small/long allen). Once this screw is removed, you can push
the shaft out the other way..

You will have to find some form of drift to knock the old seals out.. A
wooden dowel works find.. You can also us a larger wooden dowel to press the
new seals in..

The water seal will have the rubber lip pointing towards the impeller and
the oil seal lip will point towards the engine side.

Before you install the shaft, look for nicks or burrs that could cut or
damage the seals. Look closely around the area of the impellor screw
threads. Sometime a burr will raise from that hole. Put some oil or water
pump grease on the shaft as you insert it.

Once the shaft is installed, assemble the impellor onto the shaft and secure
with the screw..
Put a little grease of water on the impellor as you push it back into the
pump cavity. Bend the vanes in the proper direction (if you remember from
when you removed it). Not a big deal with a new pliable impellor, on an old
impellor the vanes could break off if force in the wrong direction.

Install the pump cover plate with a new gasket (if supplied) but a little
grease helps to insure a good seal.

Before you install the pump, check that the weep hole between the seal areas
is open. Probe it with a tooth pick .. Sometimes people plug this hole when
they see water dripping out.. if it's plugged, water can get into the oil..

The MD n B manual is on my web site
http://hood.hctc.com/~esteve/private/manuals/
I recommend you download the Zip file since the .pdf file has been causing
problems when trying to veiw online.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

On 15 Mar 2004 11:33:19 -0800, (Ronald) wrote:

Hi all!

I have a leaking raw water pump on my Volvo Penta MD17C. I've replaced
the front plate gasket already, but that did not help.. After a more
close inspection, I saw that the water is coming from behind the
impeller housing.. I've called around to see how much this is going
to cost me for someone do it for me... it didn't look good.

I've decided to pull the pump off myself. I already ordered all the
parts I need: new shaft, 1 water seal, 1 oil seal, new face-plate
gasket.. Impeller.. $50 worth of stuff..

Is there anybody who did this before? Do you have tips?

Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you,
Ronald.

A couple of people have suggested using grease as a "gasket sealer".
During my old hot-rod days we used stuff like Perma-Tex(?)...a goopy
high temp gasket sealer. Is there a reason this isn't recommended for
marine use?
Norm

The pump end plate has a paper thin gasket, just enough to give the proper
impellor clearance. Any additional thickness in the joint makeup would
seriously effect the pump performance.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Thanks for all the feedback! Upcoming weekend I will do the job.

When I took the faceplate off for the first time, it seemed to me that is
was mounted reversed. On the inside it said the brand and model number,
rotating direction and so on.
To me it feels like that this information should be on the outside.. not on
the impeller side.. Is this an correct assumption?

Ronald.

Yes, the face plate was on backwards if the lettering was on the inside.
They should be on the outside.

That old plate may have been worn excessively on the original face and
someone reversed to thinking it would improve performance. Hah!

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

The shaft I ordered was too long, the seals however are OK.
When I took the pump housing off, it was a different pump then I had
anticipated. This pump (Johnson F4B) had 2 bearings that didn't show on the
specs that I had. No way I could press the shaft out myself. I took it to
the local marine-supply store. They pressed the shaft out and told me the
bearing were shot too. I placed an order for the bearings and for $40 they
will put it back together..

Ronald.


--
Storebro Royal 33 owner?
goto: http://mysite.verizon.net/res0d999/Storebro/index.htm