Panda Fischer Generator Impeller Service

Seacurity

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After reading a few posts about how difficult it was to service the impeller on my diesel generator I went down to the boat and looked at what everyone was talking about. After removing the cover from my Panda on my 2006 Grady White Marlin I could see what all the grumbling was about. It seemed that you are going to need very small hands or some special tools to get those wing nuts off and then back on in such a tight spot. Reading posts from others about having an few extra wingnuts makes total sense now.

Although I had a few extra wingnuts I was not confident that I would not drop every single wingnut into the base of the generator housing so I had to come up with another plan. I made a slip knot with 15 pound mono and I was able to loop it around the wing of the wingnut. I did this for each nut before I attemted to remove and replace them and was able to remove and replace each one without losing any of them. If not for the mono I would have lost at least 3 of them. Just thought I would post this, hope I could help someone.
 

HMBJack

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Thanks but what keeps the slip knot from slipping off the wing on the wing nut?

Great idea - just curious how you did this. Thanks,
 

Seacurity

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The wing nut seems to be wider towards the end, I slipped the loop over the end of the wing to its base and cinched it tight. I then pulled the tag end with a long nose pliers to make sure it was snug.
 

HMBJack

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Thanks for that. I'll try that next time I do an impellor change. I especially like the idea of using braided line.

I picked up a handfull of right sized threaded nuts (non wing nuts).
I find the non-wingnuts easier to handle in that very small place...
 

gulfcart

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Did the same thing..Works well. I don't know how you would ever change the seals in the pump. I also put some glue on my finger tips to keep them sticky.. Helped a lot..

I don't intend changing again until it actually goes bad.. I have 700 hours on the gen set with only 2 impellar replacements. One cause I had to, the other just because....