Sailfish live well pump question

[Legend]

My pump died. The pump is plastic and screws into the seacock. While trying to unscrew it top of the pump broke off from the bottom piece that screws into the seacock. Tried everything but cannot get the bottom piece to unscrew from the seacock. Anyone else had this problem? Thanks in advance for any tips
Mark

 

[DennisG01]

Channel Locks.

or

This piece is plastic, too? Cut it off.

This is sort of a pet peeve of mine, but you might consider using a pump that gets mounted to a bulkhead, instead of direct to the seacock. I know Grady does this a lot, but there are plenty of other companies that do not. Personally, I think the only thing it does is increase the chance of stepping on it/bumping it and breaking it.

 

[Sharkbait282]

I can easily see how that could happen given the age of some of the original plastic pumps.

I think you have two initial options:
1) continue trying to work at arms length in the bottom of the bilge with the valve still on the thru hull
2) try to remove the value from the thru hull before proceeding (as long as you haven't already launched the boat)

Considering that 2 might be nearly impossible as well, I would either try to find a huge flat head screwdriver that you could wedge into the remains of the plastic threaded bit and use that to carefully screw out . . .

OR delicately reach in there with the end of a hack saw blade and cut through as much of the plastic as you can without damaging the bronze threads. Might need two or three slices before you can pry out the pieces.

Both of these ideas would be easier though if you're able to get a strap wrench around the valve (after soaking bottom end in penetrating lube), and removing the valve from the thru hull.

Sorry for your troubles, that's a tough spot to break stuff.

Bob.

 

[Sharkbait282]

I'm actually going to add a disclaimer:

If you do remove the valve from the thru-hull, I can't take any credit if you decide to re-use the original valve or thru-hull. Based on the age of materials and the environment they live in, I don't know if the original valve would ever go back on and not leak after being removed.

Most marine surveyors, professionals, and some owners (me included) prefer a proper bedded/flanged thru hull valve, which isn't the OEM Grady configuration for our boats. We had a piece of floating debris crush the outside forward face of one of our intake strainers last spring, so I'm lined up for replacement of both of them after this season.

Bob.

 

[Legend]

Thanks for the tips - will try everything mentioned tomorrow. I would like to avoid removing the sea cock if at all possible . I thought it would be relatively easy to remove this pump since the threads were plastic. Don't understand why GW puts these parts 3 feet away from the user in the bottom of the bilge? would thing a hose running to a pump that I accessible would make our live a lot easier!

 

[Sharkbait282]

If you still use the factory supplied drop-in "tackle bin," make sure you mount the new pump far enough off-set to the port side and low enough on the bulkhead to not interfere with the bottom end of that box.

I still have yet to find out if I did well enough . . . could end up having to re-adjust the location of the pump again. :bang

 

[Legend]

Finally got the bottom of the old pump out. I used a wood chisel to create some slots in the plastic and then inserted an extra long screw driver into the slots. A vice grip on screw driver head gave me the leverage to get it turning. Thanks again for the tips.