Impeller Shaft Stuck on Impeller

[HBS]

I have a 1997 GTI with a frozen pump (this is strictly a fresh water ski). I locked the pump shaft end into a vice and attempted to loosen the impeller with a breaker bar and impeller tool turning counter clockwise. No luck. I applied heat to the shaft end to break the loctite and tried again with no luck. I tried a pneumatic impact wrench with no luck. I purchased the impeller shaft holder (P/N 295000082), attached it to the pump and locked the pump in the vice. This time, using a six foot long cheater bar on my breaker bar and, with considerable force, managed to nearly destroy the shaft holder when the shaft/impeller turned a bit. At this point I suspect I will never separate the impeller from the shaft. Do you agree? Should I just buy a new pump and impeller? I have replaced wear rings and have rebuilt at least one pump on my other ski(s) but have never encountered this much resistance removing an impeller. Thanks in advance; this is a wonderfully helpful site!

 

[rusty nail]

i had a super stubborn one last year.....ended up with the pump shaft in the vice, used an old driveshaft in the impeller, grabbed the driveshaft with a very large pipe wrench and another pipe on that to extend the force.....if you can run the torch into the impeller before doing this to loosen it up a bit. needed to replace most of the parts in the pump after, but i got it apart. At that point it was a matter of principal and i could not let it win.

 

[HBS]

Thank you Rusty Nail. I tried applying heat to the shaft end/impeller body just before I used the cheater bar. The attached photo shows the damage to the shaft holder. More info: when I removed the pump nose cone the thrust bearing fell out in pieces and the cavity was DRY. There is zero end play on the impeller shaft, which should tell you something. If there is one valuable lesson I learned from this is the importance of pump maintenance. This weekend I topped up the oil in the pumps on my other skis.

 

[AKnarrowback]

It sounds like the damage is done, I'm sorry to say. A full pump rebuild is needed.

Hopefully you can get the impeller and shaft to break free without resorting to a method that could damage the pump body itself

The advice I have to give is only for when you put in all new parts...

The impeller shaft and impeller DO NOT need to be torqued down with excessive force. Use a very small amount of blue loctite if you want to. I personally use a small amount of marine grease on the shaft threads before spinning the impeller on. I spin the impeller on by hand and feel for rough spots in the threads. If everything spins on smooth I only give the impeller a couple of degrees of "torque" just going by feel.

The impeller will not loosen or fall off. It spins in a direction that will tighten it down on the shaft. I have NEVER seen an impeller fail that was put on using my method. I have seen many impellers and impeller shafts over torqued, over loctited and rammed together with dirty gauld threads.

The stainless materials can be prone to gauling the threads and destroying the parts spun together. Things may spin together easy enough, but never come apart. Hand tightening the impeller allows you to feel for any hangup without damaging things, you can still unspin and fix things. If it hangs up and you continue to torque the impeller in then the "trap" has been set and the chances grow that they won't spin back apart.

Impeller installation on older machines is where I disagree with the shop manual. No loctite, clean threads, a little grease, hand tight with a little snug down using a wrench.

 

[Dennis weimer]

I have come upon this myself..... I've done exactly what you did I put it in a 10 inch Vise with a 7-ft snipe (heat and penatrant) I had to ratchet strap (x3) it into the Vise so it wouldn't come out..... but still no luck..! I ended up drilling the center of the shaft out in a drill press. You got to make sure you hit the center when you're drilling it........ I drilled mine out so there was about a 16th of an inch around the threads and the impeller threads were still intact (cause I wanted to save the impeller) . Used an easy out and it came out..., not without a fight.. but it did come out finally .... I wish I would have taken some pictures because it was quite an ordeal. hope this helps


( by the way it ended up the housing was garbage.., (bearing surfaces nfg) ... milled housing down reinstalled new bearings and new shaft still pilled everything up.... Fack ) I finnaly ended up throwing the housing in the trash... bought a new ( used) pump and put some new bearings and a new shaft in it and it's running good)

 

[etemplet]

I have come upon this myself..... I've done exactly what you did I put it in a 10 inch Vise with a 7-ft snipe (heat and penatrant) I had to ratchet strap (x3) it into the Vise so it wouldn't come out..... but still no luck..! I ended up drilling the center of the shaft out in a drill press. You got to make sure you hit the center when you're drilling it........ I drilled mine out so there was about a 16th of an inch around the threads and the impeller threads were still intact (cause I wanted to save the impeller) . Used an easy out and it came out..., not without a fight.. but it did come out finally .... I wish I would have taken some pictures because it was quite an ordeal. hope this helps


( by the way it ended up the housing was garbage.., (bearing surfaces nfg) ... milled housing down reinstalled new bearings and new shaft still pilled everything up.... Fack ) I finnaly ended up throwing the housing in the trash... bought a new ( used) pump and put some new bearings and a new shaft in it and it's running good)

Feel your pain brother. Leap tall buildings in a single bound for naught. LOL But it is good practice. Which reminds me. I need to fill my oxygen tank. Happy Hollidays !!