1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

T

t5226sw

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May 17, 2012
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I have a 1992 Alpha Gen II that after winter storage, I can't get the outdrive sea water pump to prime and deliver water to the engine/water pump.
Running at idle there is no flow, reving to 2000+ RPM produces intermittent flow. I have checked it at both the top of the engine and pulled the hose at the PS cooler on the LH lower side of the engine.... This is as close to the outdrive pump as I can get to check the water supply from the outdrive.... Still only surges a small volume of water. It is like it won't prime.
I ran muffs with garden hose full open and also in a tank of water filled to the anti cavitation plate. No differance ether way.

After dissassembly and cleaning the old impeller did not fix it, I installed a new water pump kit, including the housing, impeller and seals.

Still no flow, and what water does lay in the T-Stat housing overheats... (Normally out of the water, with no load, I can barley get the temp off the first mark)

I am a little unsure about the seal above the sea water pump impeller housing on the main shaft...It has a small thin lip in the bottom of the seal... Is it supposed to be lipped around the top of the impeller housing to hold it in place or does it just ride above the impeller housing?

The install tool didn't seem to push it all the way down, so I lipped it over the impeller housing between the shaft with a small screwdriver... Is that correct or could that cause the impeller to bypass water and not prime? (The old seal was too torn up to tell me how it was located)
Any other suggestions on what may cause it to not want to prime.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
Steve
 
achris

achris

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Re: 1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

Sounds like it's sucking air from somewhere...
 
cr2k

cr2k

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Re: 1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

The seal is just pushed down on TOP of the housing. The tool is to set how far down it is pushed.

Are yo sure you got the water tube captured in the pump?
 
cr2k

cr2k

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Re: 1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

The seal is just pushed down on TOP of the housing. The tool is to set how far down it is pushed.

Are yo sure you got the water tube captured in the pump?
 
M

MarkSee

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Re: 1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

t5226sw said:
It has a small thin lip in the bottom of the seal... Is it supposed to be lipped around the top of the impeller housing to hold it in place or does it just ride above the impeller housing?
The install tool didn't seem to push it all the way down, so I lipped it over the impeller housing between the shaft with a small screwdriver... Is that correct or could that cause the impeller to bypass water and not prime? (The old seal was too torn up to tell me how it was located)
Any other suggestions on what may cause it to not want to prime."
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you are seeing with the seal in that kit as I came across the same thing when I did mine.

As the others indicated, this seal must ride on top of the housing not be pushed inside.

When I noticed the seal in the complete water pump kit was smaller than what I just pulled off the shaft and did not seal completely when pushed down just like you found, I started researching for the larger/proper size oil seal.

Quicksilver part # 26-816575a 2 is the seal kit (seal and tool). I have 2 of that same part # package in front of me: 1 with the larger/proper size seal and 1 with the smaller size seal like what you got in the kit; if I had a digital camera with me I'd take a picture.
The tool in each package is the exactly the same size.
Note that the part number of the small seal (without tool) is 26-861415. Now whether Merc had the larger seal under a different part number or the same one I'm not sure; I'm just going by the packages in front of me.

If you order online I'm not sure how you know you'd be getting the larger/right size seal so you might try taking the seal with you to a place that sells Merc/Quicksilver products and see what they have in stock to match up with making sure you get the larger seal.


Maybe the aftermarket manufacturers would still have the larger size seals.

Mark
 
Last edited:
Don S

Don S

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62,321
Re: 1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

I am a little unsure about the seal above the sea water pump impeller housing on the main shaft...It has a small thin lip in the bottom of the seal... Is it supposed to be lipped around the top of the impeller housing to hold it in place or does it just ride above the impeller housing?
Click to expand...

The install tool didn't seem to push it all the way down, so I lipped it over the impeller housing between the shaft with a small screwdriver... Is that correct or could that cause the impeller to bypass water and not prime? (The old seal was too torn up to tell me how it was located)
Click to expand...


It's called a face seal. With the setting tool it just touches the top of the housing. It does not go inside of anything else. It does not seal air or water. It just keeps dirt from getting into the pump from the exhaust and water.

Here is some info from the manual. Sounds like you should have had a manual.

View attachment A1G2 Impeller Replace.pdf
 
TimeZone

TimeZone

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Apr 19, 2012
Messages
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Re: 1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

Lurking here for about a month now.
Just wanted to say this forum is awesome!

Rebuilding my pump this morning and this was exactly what I needed to know.

Thanks for posting this section of the manual Don!

Cheers!
Ron
 
D

Deese566

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Feb 22, 2012
Messages
19
Re: 1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

The seal you guys are talking about , like Don said doesnt have anything to do with air or water. It prevents sand , trash etc from building up on top of the pump hsg. The tool they give ya in the kit is a preload tool. It keeps ya from pressing the seal down to hard onto the pump hsg. I would remove the lower drive an recheck the water pipe ,guide tube etc. You know ,just make sure everything is lined up properly. If the problem still presist remove the drive an check or replace the o-ring on the bell hsg. IF all that is in good cond look at the hose an clamp inside the bilge where water comes through the transom an goes to the p/s oil cooler. Somewhere its sucking air , its kinda like drinking a mcdonalds drink with a hole in the straw. ya getten more air than drink.
 
T

t5226sw

Recruit
Joined
May 17, 2012
Messages
2
Re: 1992 Alpha Gen II 4.3 Water Pump Won't Prime

t5226sw said:
I have a 1992 Alpha Gen II that after winter storage, I can't get the outdrive sea water pump to prime and deliver water to the engine/water pump.
Running at idle there is no flow, reving to 2000+ RPM produces intermittent flow. I have checked it at both the top of the engine and pulled the hose at the PS cooler on the LH lower side of the engine.... This is as close to the outdrive pump as I can get to check the water supply from the outdrive.... Still only surges a small volume of water. It is like it won't prime.
I ran muffs with garden hose full open and also in a tank of water filled to the anti cavitation plate. No differance ether way.

After dissassembly and cleaning the old impeller did not fix it, I installed a new water pump kit, including the housing, impeller and seals.

Still no flow, and what water does lay in the T-Stat housing overheats... (Normally out of the water, with no load, I can barley get the temp off the first mark)

I am a little unsure about the seal above the sea water pump impeller housing on the main shaft...It has a small thin lip in the bottom of the seal... Is it supposed to be lipped around the top of the impeller housing to hold it in place or does it just ride above the impeller housing?

The install tool didn't seem to push it all the way down, so I lipped it over the impeller housing between the shaft with a small screwdriver... Is that correct or could that cause the impeller to bypass water and not prime? (The old seal was too torn up to tell me how it was located)
Any other suggestions on what may cause it to not want to prime.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice.

I pulled the outdrive apart and found I had the impeller set up to turn the wrong direction. So I reversed the impeller and corrected the seal instillation and everything works great.

Thanks again for the help.
 
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