Recent content by EricFox

Ray, Christian and others helped me to understand that the cracking is less about structural integrity and more about aesthetics. I'm not worried that the keel will fall off - but it would be nice to keep the bilge dry (apart from what comes down the mast during rain). At times I feel like...

Thanks for the suggestions, Christian (seam compound - I didn't know that such a product existed), Ken, and Jeff. Re: the plate, I did file off the sharp edge to help distribute the load, but I think I will indeed go at it more aggressively with a grinder before I launch. Jeff, I'm very curious...

I never did a follow up at the end of last season, so here it is now. When I hauled out there was still some cracking at the aft end of the keel/hull joint - not as bad as previously, but enough to let water in. So I repeated the process of removing material and re-glassing, but this time I used...

If I was to use the bilge pump to remove water between haul-out and freeze-up then I would end up with water freezing in the pump. The pump might survive that, but I wouldn't want to risk it. A lot of people in this neck of the woods use the plug solution. BTW, I run antifreeze through the bilge...

Thanks, Grant and Christian, for that lead - I'll definitely follow up.

Thanks, Chris. I drilled the pilot hole from the inside out since I wanted to make sure that the pilot hole was as close to floor of the bilge as possible. The only uncertainty was where the hole would exit relative to the keel/hull joint - that would be a function of the hull thickness, the...

K2MSmith, yes, I confirmed that the impellor is rotating properly. And I was getting the same problem with old and new impellors. I'm fairly certain the impellors aren't the problem. Loren, you discovered our sneaky plan to fill the water that we send south with abrasive material. But I don't...

Well, I finally have a hypothesis about what is happening and to share and what looks to be a solution. I brought the pump home, bought some clear tubing so I could see where water was (or was not) flowing, made a tool to drive the pump with my drill, then began to play. When pulling on air...

Hmm, interesting idea - I'll check that when I take it apart this week.

But it needs to a failure mode that is intermittent. Tt's definitely turning most of the time - it would have to be a failure that can come and go, i.e. sometimes engaged and sometimes not, with the ability to get it re-engage most times by simply reducing back pressure at the output of the...

To further explain, if the spacer isn't connecting, then it's an intermittent failure to connect - must be not engaging at startup, then when I remove back pressure it somehow decreases resistance to turning enough that it re-engages. Christian, based on what you saw, is it something that could...

I'm fairly certain it's spinning, but of course I can't be 100% sure. Removing the pump from the block may give me some further insight. BTW, I haven't checked, but I'm expecting that the pump sits above the resting level of the oil, i.e. I won't need to drain the oil before removing pump - is...

I'm headed out to the boat this week for one last time before winter - thinking that I'll bring the pump back with me so that I can play with it at home. I'm assuming that I can rig a way to run it using a drill to rotate the shaft.

Just got a quotation of $C 257 each (around $188 US) from the local Kubota dealer - I'll definitely try the refurb route first!

Al, unfortunately I have no idea how old the pump is. Doug, I can't rotate the shaft by hand, and it's turning even when cold (if the key slot is oriented down whenever I reassemble the pump I can get the shaft to rotate by pulsing the starter so that the slot is oriented such that the key...