This is the rest of the pump story. I took a weekend “researching” and messing with the broken pump. I tried a couple different ways to remove the wear ring as long as I didn’t have to be concerned with messing up the broken housing. I found a burr on an electric die grinder was my favorite way to cut it. I removed and replaced the bearings and seal. I used a blind bearing puller and beat them from the inside out. I reinstalled them with 3/8 all thread, washers and a socket. Seat the bearing flush with the housing using a washer. Get a socket and set them to depth. For example with a 16 pitch thread, it takes 1.6 turns on the nut to get the bearing .100” below the surface. I came pretty close at .104”.
I got an idea what pumps cost on Ebay, but cheaper ones sold by individuals seemed like a crap shoot. I called Westside. They sell serviceable bronze pump housing for $160 to my door. I was impressed by Nick’s experience and his willingness to share it. The housing had the wear ring removed and had some rock damage to the stator fins. The lube in the pump was really filthy but no signs of water. I touched up the sharp edges of the rock burrs on the fins. I did a pressure test and it didn’t leak and the bearings turned freely. I installed an OEM wear ring using the freezer method and it slide right in. Before I did the lube fill, I looked at the internals one more time. I am glad I did because there we two small pits on the thrust bearing surface of the shaft that I had missed. I called Westside again to ask if it would be OK just to use my good shaft, thrust bearing and washer from the old pump. The manual says it is recommended to replace all bearings if the shaft is replaced. But the manual also talked about shaft wear limits and neither of these shafts had worn on the roller surfaces. I thought it would be OK and Nick said it should be too. He also said he would have sent me another shaft if I wanted to wait on the mail. That’s something you’ll probably not get with an Ebay pump. I am now a fan of Westside.
The new wear ring was really rubbing the impeller in spots. It also had a .008 gap in one area. So something is slightly out of round. After installing the pump, I turned it over with the PTO by hand to make sure nothing was bound up. Jeezus it was hard but it turned. I put the battery in and cranked it a bit with the plugs out. Seemed OK. Put in the plugs and it wouldn’t turn over. Great. So I shot a bunch of oil at the wear ring and tried again. No go. I had maintained the battery last month so I thought that could be it. It was. Ski started with a charged battery and was running slow for a few seconds. Then it came to life. It might have been the fogging oil, but I think it was more likely the wear ring interference going away. There were some piles of wear ring particles soaked in oil on the stator fins and it is turning over like a champ now.
