Hi. Recently I found a fair amount of grease/oil (odorless) that looks
like it was sprayed out from the pulley of my seawater pump (92 merc
454 bravo one). Now my fuel pump is not pumping. I'm figuring I blew
the bearing in the seawater pump and burnt out the cam driving the fuel
pump. Sound right? Any chance it could be something less dramatic like
just the fuel pump or a gasket? I am going to pull the fuel pump and
check it out so I guess I really won't know until then, I'm just
wondering if anyone has had this, I can't find as much as I'd like on
it.
Assuming the seawater pump needs to be removed how much water will come
out of the intake hose to the pump when I pull it? I'll have to do it
on my mooring. What's the best thing to plug it with if the water keeps
coming? I don't have a cut off or seacock that I can find. My only
concern over the project is spraying salt water all over the place.

Thanks for any thoughts.

IGet a wood plug ready to stick in the end of the hose. You really,
really should have a shutoff on that as close to where it comes through
the hull as possible. If the hose breaks and you can't turn it off
you're going to be seeing just how much water your bilge pump can
handle and your engine is no tgoing to have any cooling so you'll be
dead in the water too.

Typically the fuel pump is driven by a cam directly on the shaft and
pretty fool proof. If the water pump is turning then the cam is
turning. You should be able to remove the belt, remove the fuel pump
and stick your finger in the hole and feel the cam bump while turning
the water pump pulley by hand. At the same time you can check the pump
shaft for play by trying to move the pulley side to side.

wrote:
Hi. Recently I found a fair amount of grease/oil (odorless) that looks
like it was sprayed out from the pulley of my seawater pump (92 merc
454 bravo one). Now my fuel pump is not pumping. I'm figuring I blew
the bearing in the seawater pump and burnt out the cam driving the fuel
pump. Sound right? Any chance it could be something less dramatic like
just the fuel pump or a gasket? I am going to pull the fuel pump and
check it out so I guess I really won't know until then, I'm just
wondering if anyone has had this, I can't find as much as I'd like on
it.
Assuming the seawater pump needs to be removed how much water will come
out of the intake hose to the pump when I pull it? I'll have to do it
on my mooring. What's the best thing to plug it with if the water keeps
coming? I don't have a cut off or seacock that I can find. My only
concern over the project is spraying salt water all over the place.

Thanks for any thoughts.

I don't have a cut off or seacock that I can find.

What sort of boat is this that it doesn't have a cut-off for the raw water
intake? Yeesh, that's crazy.

Also consider an electric fuel pump. If the replacement of the mechanical
one is prohibitively expensive (or difficult) you may be able to get by with
an electric one. If only until you get the boat out of the water so you can
replace the mechanical one properly. If you can find out the proper flow
rate you ought to be able to use an automotive electric fuel pump to handle
it.

-Bill Kearney

"Bill Kearney" wrote in message
t...
I don't have a cut off or seacock that I can find.

What sort of boat is this that it doesn't have a cut-off for the raw water
intake? Yeesh, that's crazy.

Also consider an electric fuel pump. If the replacement of the mechanical
one is prohibitively expensive (or difficult) you may be able to get by
with
an electric one. If only until you get the boat out of the water so you
can
replace the mechanical one properly. If you can find out the proper flow
rate you ought to be able to use an automotive electric fuel pump to
handle
it.

-Bill Kearney


And there are inline pressure regulators for fuel lines.

The replacement fuel pump is a regular chevy marine fuel pump. It is
just mounted on the raw water pump instead of the engine block because
chevy quit making the block with a place for a mechanical fuel pump.
So the raw water pump has a small cam on it's shaft and a mount for a
fuel pump. On most installations the raw water pump is even pretty
close to the location on the block where the fuel pump used to mount.

Mechanical pumps have a simple safety factor. Engine stops, fuel pump
stops. Works everytime.


Bill Kearney wrote:
I don't have a cut off or seacock that I can find.

What sort of boat is this that it doesn't have a cut-off for the raw water
intake? Yeesh, that's crazy.

Also consider an electric fuel pump. If the replacement of the mechanical
one is prohibitively expensive (or difficult) you may be able to get by with
an electric one. If only until you get the boat out of the water so you can
replace the mechanical one properly. If you can find out the proper flow
rate you ought to be able to use an automotive electric fuel pump to handle
it.

-Bill Kearney