Water Pump Woes

I spent a little time cleaning and sanding the chamber of the pump today and sanding down the ridges in the cover. The cover gasket dried out overnight and shrunk big time so was unusable. Car Quest had the right thickness of gasket material (.009) and for $2 I have enough to make cover gaskets for every A4 in existence. I decided against sanding the pump face at this time and put the pump back together.

Now how to turn it for a test. Hmmm... I new I was going to use the drill/driver for motion but not sure how to interface the drill with a 3/16" slot in a 1/2" shaft of the pump. After a few minutos I discovered  a standard #2 cross point (Phillips or maybe it was a Reed & Prince) fit perfectly in the slot so chucked it up. I put some water in the pump for prime and lubrication and stuck the intake into a bucket of water. Hit the trigger and alas no water coming from the outlet hose. "Damn !"

I changed to the higher speed and still nothing and then after about 10 seconds water came flying out and got my shoe wet. I have no idea how fast the drill is turning but the label says 1500 max RPM. I don't think it's turning that fast. Anyway with the help of Admiral Lee we timed a gallon of water and it took about 30 seconds. I was hoping for more but with the small worn cam shoe that is in the pump I guess that's about it. I'll reinstall on the engine and see how much flow we get. Anyone want to hold the bucket at the exhaust for me?

Who knows the difference between a Phillips and a Reed & Prince ( Frearson) ?

"How I Feel When It Won't Pump"

Water Pump

The water pump on this A4 has not pumped water very well. I replaced the impeller with one I found in the boat that was the same size as the old one before the first start attempt. The old one had taken a set (bent vanes) so I knew it would not work. After pulling the cover on the pump about 6 times I decided it was time to remove the pump for diagnosis on the work bench. Anyone who has seen my work bench understands how big a deal this is for me, but I just shoved all the other shit to the side.

I have all kinds of ideas on how to proceed from the Moyer Marine (Specialize in Atomic 4) and their forum. Some suggest soaking the impeller in Marvel Mystery Oil so it will swell a bit. It does measure .002 inch too narrow. I'll buy some MMO tomorrow. Don't ask what's in it because it's a mystery. Another suggestion is to take a few thousands off the face of the pump with a belt sander to bring the worn chamber back to tolerance when you put the cover on. This has got to be more difficult than one might think, just sanding the pump evenly, haha. If it works it saves about $250 for a new pump. If I can get the pump to pump about 5 GPM I won't mind spending a few $ for new seals and cam shoe.

I did run the engine today (with low pressure flow from garden hose) and it runs great after the carb cleaning. Today I remembered to check the transmission. Forward and reverse both worked but with a little vibration so I'll be posting about truing the prop shaft to engine soon.

Aunt Betty Jean

Not much going on with TOPOSS this week 👎 as my Aunt Betty Jean 👽 is here for a visit and I'm afraid to leave her and Lee alone for long. 😱 She is 85 and talks nonstop. She can't hear very well so when we watch a movie the volume has to be really loud 🙉. This irritated me at first 😒 until I realized she continued to talk through the entire movie and with the volume loud 👂 we could still hear the movie and not her.😣      Oban is, well 🙀.

Aunt Betty Jean

I did get a chance to fill the water jacket on the exhaust to check for leaks and so far we have none. I also found an impeller for the water pump that fits. Maybe we will fire it up and check the transmission tomorrow.

Life gets back to normal Saturday night.

IT RUNS

It was too windy to lay blocks today so I screwed around with the boat engine. I wanted to flush the water jacket so rigged up a temporary water system. I removed the raw water pump impeller so water from the garden hose could flow freely. This worked so well I decided to add fuel to the carburetor float bowl  (with a syringe) and see if it would start. Since the engine controls are not connected and I wanted to make sure nothing bad was happening, Lee came aboard to turn the key. I held the choke closed and she twisted the key to start and "START" it did. Purred like Oban on steroids. Idled it for about a minute and a half until I heard it leaning out from low fuel and shut it down. Success, our project boat is now worth at least what we payed for it.

I had disconnected the fuel pump discharge to check for flow and not add anymore fuel to the carburetor. Well there was no flow. I had the intake fuel line in about a cup of racing fuel and the pump didn't move a drop. I removed the pump and disassembled it about 4 times cleaning and soaking bowls, diaphragm, check valves and things. After about 4 hours of messing around it started pumping. I reinstalled the little bastard and manually pumped it (has a primer lever) and it would not pick up the fuel. DAMN! It had to be a check valve so I put a finger over the outlet on the suction stroke and the SOB started sucking fuel. I did this for a few minutes and got the sediment bowl full of fuel and it started working just "like it says in the fine print" (for you, Tony).

Now for the longer test run. I held the choke closed and Lee turned the key. The A-4 started instantly so I released the choke and opened the throttle a little and it bogged and quit. Don't get your blood pressure up I told myself. Held the choke closed again, Lee twisted the key and the beast started again. I let it warm a minute or so and opened the throttle a little. VOILÁ ! We ran it until the exhaust pipe got to about 150° F (handheld infrared thermometer) and shut it down. We don't have water going into the exhaust yet so didn't want to melt anything. Test Complete. Feeling better about this project boat every day. Lets eat.

I had fire extinguishers at the ready.