Field Overhaul of Sherwood R10870G, R50G, R30G Raw Water Pump

I had replaced my raw water pump some years ago and I finally managed to get a pump repair kit. I didn't have a fancy workshop with press, but instead had to make do with the tools I had on the boat. Here is how I set about reviving this old raw water pump.
First I removed the four bolts holding the cover plate on and extracted the rubber impeller. You can remove the impeller by using  needle nose pliers, holding an impeller blade opposite each other. Gently pull, alternating sides till it slides out.
Then I moved to the pulley end and undid the two screws holding the bearing and seal body to the main body.

Once the bearing body and shaft has been removed, remove the seal assembly. This will necessitate removing a small circlip on the shaft. Now remove the two woodruff keys. I use a pair of side cutters and gently grip at the base of the woodruff key and lever up. Be careful not to damage the shaft.
There is a woodruff key for the pulley and one for the impeller.

Remove the large circlip which sits in front of the bearing and drive out from the opposite end. Be sure to protect the end of the shaft from damage by using a sacrificial block of wood. The shaft is now free of the bearing and seal body.

Now, after removing a small circlip in front of the bearing, I used a bearing/pulley puller to pull the bearing off the shaft.

Puller with added socket on end of shaft

As the bearing came down the shaft, I used a small socket between the end of the shaft and the puller, to facilitate the last little bit to get the bearing off. You can see that in the picture to the right.

Now, replacing the seal surface is as simple as pulling out the old one with ones fingers and placing in the new one with a gentle push with the fingers. White side of seal (running surface) goes opposite the bearing and towards the sprung seal assembly.

In getting ready to reassemble, I cleaned off the matching surfaces of old gasket and proceeded to make a new one. For some reason my kit did not include this gasket. You can see the impression of the cut out to be, made in the gasket paper to the left of the pump body. Careful use of scissors and a hole punch made this easy work.
Now for assembly.....
First, I used a fine wet and dry sand paper to rub off all rust, nicks and burrs that were on the shaft.
With the one circlip on the other side of the bearing which was not removed off the shaft, I used this as the guide to which I would drive the new bearing on the shaft to. I used a small spark plug socket which was just the right size to slide over the shaft and seat against the inner race of the bearing. Using gentle taps with a hammer, I drove the bearing onto the shaft. It is important at the start of this, to make sure it is on square to the shaft as you make the first taps with the hammer. I finished with a piece of stainless tubing I had, to drive the bearing up to the circlip and then placed a new circlip on the other side of the bearing which keeps the location of the bearing on the shaft at the exact point needed. At all times, the force must only be applied to the inner race of the bearing. If you drive the bearing on using the outer race of the bearing, damage can be done to the bearing before it is even put to use.

Now place the shaft and bearing assembly through the bearing body and drive the assembly into the body by now driving on the outer ball bearing race. Small taps with a sacrificial block of wood and hammer will drive the assembly in till such time as you can now place the large retaining circlip which keeps the bearing/shaft assembly inside the bearing body.

Finally for the shaft, place on the spring loaded seal arrangement, compress the spring and place a new circlip to retain the assembly against the running surface. This can be seen assembled in the photo to the right.
With the gasket between the interfaces, present the bearing body to  the pump body and secure with the two threaded bolts. Mine were somewhat rusty, so I took the opportunity to put two new ones in with anti seize used on the threads.
Replace the two woodruff keys.
I didn't replace the cam inside the pump body: my kit had the wrong one and the old one was still OK. Also, I didn't replace the carbon bearing in the end of the cover plate. That was also OK, and while the carbon ones are easy to remove by breaking out from the recess, that can also be the demise of the new one when replacing; if one is not careful. These should be a finger push fit when done right, but heavy hands can also break these carbon bearings. Mine was OK, so I decided best to leave alone. After all, I'm not in a location where spares are easy to come by.
I leave the impeller out of the pump body until I'm ready to put it into service. I've seen too many pumps come off the shelf with impellers with distorted blades, just because they have been sitting in one spot inside the pump for many years.
The end cover was placed on the pump and the four retaining bolts finger tightened. Now it is wrapped in plastic and ready for the next time I have to replace the raw water pump due to leaking.
Hope that helps with your project.
Kit about $150 verses new at about $400. Time, about four hours.

Gasket Making

In many situations you may need or want to make your own gaskets for your boat's engine or other equipment. It may be difficult to find a gasket for an older engine, especially when you're cruising and the need arises suddenly. You may also enjoy doing it yourself and saving money.
This photo shows the inside of a cover plate for a 1980 Paragon transmission, which was installed with certain Yanmar and Westerbeke marine diesel engines. The Paragon company no longer exists, and parts can be difficult or possibly impossible to find. In this case, this sailboat owner needed to replace the original paper gasket between this cover and the transmission case, which had disintegrated when he opened the transmission cover to make a clutch adjustment.

Gasket material is readily available at almost all automobile parts stores and costs little. Buy the type of material that most closely matches the original gasket (whether paper, cork, rubber, or some other material). In most cases it won't matter if the gasket is a little thicker than the original, but be sure it meets the needed specifications (i.e., that it will stand up to engine heat or fluids, etc.).
In this photo, the boat owner chose a thick paper gasket with a light adhesive backing that will make it easier to mount the completed gasket.
The first step is to obtain an accurate outline of the gasket from the shape of the surface on which the gasket will lie. A simple way to do this is place the object (like this tranmission cover plate) on the gasket material and lightly tap it with a mallet.

If you look carefully at this photo, you can see the indentation made in the paper gasket by the edges of the plate when tapped with the rubber mallet. Often you can simply cut along these edge lines with sharp scissors, but this owner decided also to outline the outside edge with a market to make the cutting easier.
Sometimes, especially with thinner gasket paper and sharp metal edges of the piece to be gasketed, the tapping actually cuts through the gasket paper so that cutting with scissors is not needed at all.

Here is the gasket after it has been cut to fit the outlined edges of this transmission cover. (The gasket looks slightly smaller than the cover because of the camera's foreshortening due to the height of the metal cover.)
Note that in this case, using thick gasket material, the edges of the gasket are a bit rough from the scissoring, which is not usually an issue with thinner paper gaskets or those made of other materials. If this happens to you, be sure to neaten up the gasket's inside edges with a sharp knife before installation to ensure small bits do not break loose and fall into the engine or other part.
Overall, making your own gaskets is more satisfactory than using a silicon paste that hardens into a gasket after being applied to the edges. It is very easy to apply too much silicon, resulting in extra material inside the part that can break free and clog up the works, or to have gaps that allow fluid leakage. A well-made gasket of the right material prevents such problems and takes only a few minutes to create.

Electronic Fuel Filter Monitor

A Filter alert system from Digivac gives advance warning of the need to change your fuel filters to prevent problems.
Their Brochure in PDF format can be found here
Compare it to a simpler product shown here on my blog earlier. Manual verses electronic.
Here's what Digi Vac had to say.....

This is a very simple breakthrough approach to avoid engine failure due to clogged fuel filters.  The Fail-Safe Filter Alert system notifies the operator of a fuel filter getting clogged.  The System uses a water proof display and a waterproof robust sensor mounted directly on the fuel filter with a clear character display, descriptive lights and a loud alarm so you can be sure what the system is telling you.  One of the worst fears of any boater is losing an engine during inclement weather, especially when making landfall in inclement or difficult conditions such as a narrow rock lined inlet.  Any engine failure could mean an unhappy boating experience and potentially the loss of the boat.  This system is one way to avoid the common causes of engine failure by monitoring fuel filter health.

The DigiVac Fail-Safe Filter Alert System Description:

•  A straightforward vacuum instrument designed to detect fuel filter degradation and alert the operator—so action can be taken before an engine failure. 

• Audible and Visual Alarm to Alert you to a problem before you reach failure point—to help avoid costly repairs and engine failure

 
Why use the DigiVac Fail-Safe Filter Alert System?

• If you have the information that your engines are about to fail, you can take evasive action to avoid a dangerous engine failure in a crowded seaway during deteriorating weather.
•  This system enables you to increase operating safety margins by giving you more time to make better decisions about the vessel.
• Clogged fuel filters are responsible for entirely too many engine failures (see references). 
• The DigiVac Fail-Safe Filter Alert System can monitor the function of the filters through the use of a robust vacuum sensor placed between the filter element and the engine. 
• The sensor combined with the visual feedback presented by the display allows the operator to see the gradual degradation of the filter thus allowing plenty of time for corrective maintenance. 

 
How does the The DigiVac Fail-Safe Filter Alert System Work?
The DigiVac Fail-Safe Filter Alert System works on the principal of maintaining fuel flow.  In a healthy fuel system, the engine low pressure pump will pull fuel from the tank through a filter.  As the filter does its job and collects contaminants, the filter flow is reduced.  As the flow is reduced, the lift pump has to work harder to pull fuel to the engine.  There is a point where the filter is too clogged to support the flow necessary for the running of the engine.  When there is not enough fuel flow, the engine first loses power then stops.  Unfortunately, a filter is very likely to clog in precisely the kind of situation when you need a reliable running engine the most.  When rough seas toss the boat, they also mix-up the contents of the fuel tank, and more contaminants are likely to find their way to the fuel filter resulting in engine degredation and failure.
How is the DigiVac Fail-Safe Filter Alert System Different?
Before this solution, one of the only ways to get the filter pressure levels to the cockpit involved extending the very sensitive closed diesel fuel system 10-50 feet.  Extending the fuel system up to the cockpit can add significant risk to the fuel system through increased likelihood of air leaks that could cause an engine failure.  Additionally, it would require the operator to constantly monitor the gauge.   The DigiVac 500 adds close to zero risk of any air intruding the system since it replaces the T-Handle (which comes standard with Racor 500, 900 and 1000) with a a stainless steel double walled hermetically sealed sensor.  Even if the sensor fails, the fuel system will not be exposed to air.  Additionally, the DigiVac Fail-Safe Filter Alert has multiple visual indications and a loud siren to notify of a dirty filter that could stop the engine.   

The DigiVac model 500 not only gives a remote indication, but also shows a trend of a filter getting clogged.  Healthy systems show up as “all green”, marginal systems show up as “all yellow” and systems that are in danger of starving the engine are “in the red” and a loud auditory sound would be activated.  Before the model 500, an operator would have to choose a filter replacement interval that would keep the engine running, and frequently visually inspect the engine and filter for debris in the fuel bowls as an indication that the filters may be marginal.  The Fail-Safe alert allows the operator to constantly monitor the filter status while at the helm, and while the engines are powering. 
The DigiVac Model 500 Fail-Safe Filter Alert enables the operator to have one additional key input to the engine's health and allows the operator to focus on other critical safety factors instead of fear that the next rough see kicks up enough muck to stops the  boat in a crowded sea way.

Recovering Distorted Raw Water Impeller

Reverse stress stake out

Some of us have left our boat for a season with the raw water pump impeller left in. Upon our return and check of the impeller, before puting the boat back in the water, we discover the impeller blades are permanently deformed and in some cases the deformed blades do not always touch the side of the pump body as it is rotated. I have also found the same to be true for new pumps I have purchased for spares. The pump has been sold with the impellor already inside, and who know how long it was sitting on the shelf. So, I remove the impeller and in the past have just thrown it out and either replaced for the pump to be used, or kept the new one outside the pump, and stored pump and new impeller in a zip lock bag, in my spares compartment.
Now, after I remove the impellor and  give the blades a good inspection for deterioration, I stake it out on a piece of wood with nails and distort the offending blades back in the opposite direction. I leave this for a few weeks/months until the blades look close to "normal" again.

You can see here to the left, an impeller that has about 3 weeks in it's reversed stress position and the blades are almost now at right angle to the body. This would probably be OK to reinstall, but will be given some more time.
If the impeller came from the raw water pump  about to be used. I just put in a new one to get the boat going, and place the "recovered one" into spares as it becomes "UN-distorted:"
This  trick should save me some money. I hope it does for you too!

Alternator Controller

The Balmar MC-612 is a fully automatic alternator regulator that has served the svVALHALLA well for many years.  There are times, however, when I find it desirable to either turn the alternator off or reduce the output power, in this case to reduce wear on bearings and belts when powering for extended periods and do not need a quick initial charge.  Typically, when weighing anchor with the windlass, its one horsepower motor will draw the batteries down considerably and this puts a large load on the engine while maneuvering to get underway.  This is an ideal time to reduce the charging load.
The regulator uses a field wire (brown) to energize the alternator when connected to battery voltage.  A switch in this wire controls when the alternator is operating.
The alternator temperature sensor (an optional item) switches the regulator into the 'small engine' mode when heating causes the temperature sensor to short out and reduces alternator output by approximately 50%.  Manually shorting this input simulates the overheated condition regardless of whether a sensor is connected or not.
This is the schematic of the project.

This project involved wiring two switches, two LEDs and two resistors into a small plastic box.
  
  I used small switches which required a 6 mm hole for the switch and a 2 mm hole for the retaining washer.

The LEDs require a 5 mm hole for a snug fit.













Before installing wiring the box was assembled and drilled for wiring entry.












The underside of the box is shown here.  Not yet connected are the field wires which go to the switch in the upper left hand corner and which come through the upper access hole.













With completion of the wiring I tested the switches using a direct connection to the temperature sensor terminals.
This was to ensure that there was no interference from the sensor.











Satisfied that things were working properly I completed the wiring with connectors to permit double connection to the temperature sensor terminals.

Now to find a label maker . . .!

Remote oil filter

Having a oil filter in a very difficult position can make changing the oil very frustrating. So it was decided to put a remote oil filter  in a place that will make the chore so much nicer. You can see the location of the old filter here. The filter is white and located way down in the bilge and behind an engine mount

Very difficult to get out and had to be removed in heavy duty plastic bags to feed under the engine.
Components were gathered together and a mount made for the filter end. This I installed behind a door near the secondary fuel filter.
Removing the old filter then allowed me to install the adapter plate to the oil filter mount (where the old filter use to sit) and route the hoses. Special spanners were required to do up the the hoses (Crows feet spanners).
Filled up the new filter with oil and connected the hoses and filter.
You can see the ease now of replacing the oil filter.

Hoses and adapter plate

Finished solution

New bracket made for oil filter