Thought I'd tackle an easy job on the boat today. All this wind, at least kept the temperatures down, and I figured I might as well replace my wash down pump on a cool afternoon
Undue 4 bolts, cut the wires to the pump, unscrew the water supply hose, unscrew the pump side hose leading to the wash down nozzle, rehang the exact pump to the 4 bolts, crimp the new pump wires, reattach the hoses, and your done
Now do all this in a space just big enough to get your arms and head inside. Oh, and the nuts are inside the cabinet (with the pump), while the Philips bolt heads are outside the cabinet and spin while trying to undue the lock washer nuts inside with a ratchet
Have to get the wife to hold the Philips screwdriver on the outside while I back the nuts off on the inside (this is just what she wants to do on her Fourth of July vacation; NOT)
Get the bolts off, she goes about her business getting ready for a small family cookout. She's working around the back yard while I play in the boat in the driveway. I disconnect the hoses with no problem. I grab my pair of nippers and cut the hot wire off the connector (attaching the pump wiring from the "boat" wiring). No problem. I cut the negative wire from the pump, and the boat wiring abruptly slides down a hole in the deck and down into the bilge
. The wife hears me cuss loud enough for the neighbors to hear
.
Now I have to get out of the boat (because I thought I had all the tools necessary for the job already onboard). I need to find a flashlight and a wire coat hanger to "fish" the wire back up through the hole in the deck. I pop a deck plate and find it is not not easily accessible to the wire hole. Possible, but not easy.
I shine the flashlight down the hole and can see the wires. With the wire coat hanger, I grab just enough of the wire to get it back through the hole and back into the storage cabinet where the pump is located. I slide my metal ratchet set on top of the wire so it doesn't slide back down the hole again.
I take the new pump and place it over the four bolts. The bolts won't go through the rubber "feet" of the pump. The feet keep vibration down and the holes are smaller than the bolt size. No problem screwing the bolt into the rubber feet, IF YOU COULD REACH THE BOLT HEAD, and hold the pump in place at the same time.
Hon, can you give me a hand once again
. The wife ran the bolts from the outside through the fiberglass and into the rubber feet inside the cabinet while I held the pump in place. We tightened all the bolts, the pump was now bolted into place. I thanked her once again, and off she went.
I put a wire connector onto both the hot wire and the negative wire leading to the pump. Whew, now all I have to do is crimp the hot and neg. wire from the boat to the pump connector. Lots of black (neg) wire; but only a short piece of "hot" wire
. This is going to be close. Of course it wasn't long enough to attach
. All I needed was another inch (go ahead and make your jokes). I found that by re-routing the boat wire, I could gain the necessary distance. Tying a string onto the boat wire, so I could easily get it back up through the hole in the deck again, I pulled it through the deck plate hatch and re-routed it to give me some slack. I pulled the string (and wires) back up through the hole and crimped the wires together.
I put some "plumbers tape" on the hose connections, tightened them up, turned on the batteries, and hit the wash down switch on the console. The pump runs
When I splash it, it should self prime, and the wash down should work again.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Family should be here shortly for some steaks, brauts, and hamburgers.
Tawn, if you need a hand replacing your pump, I can do it in 30 minutes now
5th (Marty)
30 minutes = 2 hours
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