water leak

[waterboy2010]

I have a water leak coming out of what looks like the impeller pump. Im not sure if this is what it is actually called but it has to water hoses connected to it and I will post a couple of pics. The exhaust is the big black piece to the left of it in the pic and it is connected to the belt drive on the right. It has 4 bolts, 2 of which are not there, with a white gasket in between it and what it is connected to. It has to be leaking because the bolt is missing. My question is where would I even start to try and locate one of the bolts.

[docdrs]

take one out and go to home depot and match a stainless to it to get you back going, are the other two rolling around in the bilge? then just get 2 from your dealer

[Mani]

Seconded. :cool:

[Fman]

I have a water leak coming out of what looks like the impeller pump. Im not sure if this is what it is actually called but it has to water hoses connected to it and I will post a couple of pics. The exhaust is the big black piece to the left of it in the pic and it is connected to the belt drive on the right. It has 4 bolts, 2 of which are not there, with a white gasket in between it and what it is connected to. It has to be leaking because the bolt is missing. My question is where would I even start to try and locate one of the bolts.

West Marine will have them, Home Depot does not have too good of a stainless section. ACE hardware might be a better choice for hardware stores. At least this is how it is in my city, Lowes and Home Depot have a very weak nuts/bolts section, ACE always has everything but you pay a little more.

BTW, when you put those back in they take very little pressure to tighten, especially the brass ones, you will strip them out in a heartbeat if you over tighten them. Be careful...

[waterboy2010]

Well I matched the bolts up at my local ace hardware with some stainless steel bolts. I tried to install them in the empty spots only to find out that the other two missing bolt heads were broken off with pieces left in the threads. I took out the two good bolts and faceplate along with the gasket but can't get the remaining pieces out. Does anyone have any ideas on how to remove them? Two bolts will hold the cover on but it leaks a ton of water through the loose gasket which shoots all over the engine. I would say about a gallon/20 seconds. Even with all of that the water temps stay below 180. Hope I don't have to replace the whole water pumps because of two broken bolts.

[Fman]

Trying to tap those bolts out will be a PIA. You might as well just remove the entire impeller pump housing and buy another one and install it. How did they break off???? Did you tighten them on or did someone else? If you had a shop replace your impeller take it back to them and let them deal with the headache.

Only other option I can think of is get some good gasket sealer (3M), make sure surface is entirely dry, apply to both sides of the gasket and install the plate back on with two bolts. This might get you going but the best way would be to instal another impeller housing.

[Mani]

Go to your local Autozone and pick up something called an Easy Out. Mine came with a set of drill bits and the remover bits. Drill a small divot into the bolt, then drop the puller/out bit ontop of it and start twisting it backwards until you feel it catch. Then just drop a wrench on it and twist it out. The remover bit has to be done by hand. Do not use an electric drill to twist the bolt out.

[Fman]

Go to your local Autozone and pick up something called an Easy Out. Mine came with a set of drill bits and the remover bits. Drill a small divot into the bolt, then drop the puller/out bit ontop of it and start twisting it backwards until you feel it catch. Then just drop a wrench on it and twist it out. The remover bit has to be done by hand. Do not use an electric drill to twist the bolt out.

Will he have enough room to access that area? On my boat I can barely get pliers in there to pull the old impeller out. Maybe this is only the case on the CAT ETX motors with the different exhaust system.

Unfortunately someone broke those off because they are over tightened in there which is only going to make it more difficult to remove. I have also used an easy out to remove some rusty bolts out of an old water pump on my old landcruiser. It did work but you had to have a lot of room to access the bolts, this might be worth a shot if you have the space.

[Mani]

I figured he would remove the pump and put this on a bench. I'm sure it would be a pain to try this with the pump still bolted to the engine. I don't know much about these specific pumps, but I didn't think the general design would be much different from mine. I could be wrong.

[waterboy2010]

I bought this boat used from a dealer recently (less than 3 months ago) and they only warranted their work for 30 days. I didn't even take the boat out until after then. The bolts were already broken off before I bought it and I didn't catch it during the test drive because of the storage box ontop of it.

I was thinking along these same line as to remove the whole water pump housing and trying to extract the bolts on a bench. There is little to no room to get to it while on the engine. My largest problem now it removing the beast. I removed the 1/4 allen head holding it to a bracket and the 3 #8 allen head bolts holding it to the balancer. After tugging on it for a while with no movement at all I gave up thinking that I may need to remove other bolts elsewhere before I broke something. After doing some research on the forums I have found that I removed everything I need to remove but I just need to put some more muscle into it because it is gonna be a pain to get off. I guess I will let you guys know how things go once I have time to fool with it again after thursday. Also I hope this works and I can extract them because a new pump housing cost roughly around $220.

[Mani]

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[waterboy2010]

Sorry it took so long for me to repost. I did finally get the waterpump off by gently beating it with a rubber hammer. The broken brass bolts came out easy. They were very soft and loose so I just applied pressure with a pocket knife and turned counter clockwise and out they come. Replaced the gasket and brass bolts and she was ready to go. Out on the water the next time the bolts fell out ( I guess I didn't tighten them up enough for fear that they would break off again). So I replaced them when I got home and put a little blue locktite on them and it has worked perfectly ever since. Hope they don't break off when I have to take them back out since I put locktite on them. Does anyone have any opinions as to whether or not they will?