I Appreciate the posts. but can someone answer my question.

IF my housings are not bad yet, WHY do the fix YET. why not put 30 buck worth of rubber in, and go again. now once they are messed up, I can do the kits so i dont have to buy new pumps. I agree at that point go with the kits But there is no point to replace them until you I have the problem.

Unless I am missing something the kits, cover where the pump housings get worn, so no harm in waiting until they are worn to do the fix.



And I NEVER start new impellers on the hose. once they are replaced it goes in the water. I try not to use a hose at all other then when i HAVE to.

Here's a pic of mine 2 years ago when my mechanic went to change the impellers. He put a new impeller in and he couldn't get it to pump water no matter what he tried. He dropped the boat in the lake and tried to get the water to pump. He ended up replacing the whole pump. He didn't know about the wear plate kit that was available.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...1EAFCB6C04.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...8F6B9F5A28.jpg
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...249B95CF02.jpg

I agree, put the impellers in, put the boat in the water, if they pump you are done, they will only pump better as time goes on and they wear into the existing grooves.

older plastic housings had a wear plate with an o-ring behind them new style pumps are all brass and to be reused if you are getting bad wear marks in the housing itself then you probably want to just go ahead and replace the whole pump the bearing are probably shot idk why these pumps have such a problem with the bearings but the shaft will actually pull out in your hand if it gets bad enough i work for sea ray and we have replaced tons of them 4.3's 350 mags 496 there all the same i wish they would go back to the plastic housing i thought they were much better

when reinstalling new impeller install with mercury marine grease if you get a whole new pump they are not pre-lubed spray some some kind of lube in the pump and work the impeller shaft around until it gets real easy to turn

The new replacement pumps from Merc have stainless wear plates. Guess they figured out the all brass wasn't the best idea.

I like to use Dawn Dish soap, as it lubes it well, and washes out with out any harm