i ended up doing it. took me about an hour, pretty sure now that i know how to do it i will do it every season, the old one was all dry rot and looked pretty bad.

pretty sure i could do it in under an hour now, atleast on my boat as the seat back lifts up and makes more room and easy to work on

I changed both of mine last year and lost one memorial day weekend. This is the first year i didn't change them "Shame on Me! so I will be replacing both.. It is not worth the aggravation when you overheat and have to idle for hours to get in because of a rubber impeller.

thats what im talking about. for the 60 bucks and 2 hours, its worth it

My 496 had 200 hours on the original impeller when I got the boat and it blew. The rubber of the impeller was super hard and not flexible. The pump also was significantly scored. The scoring could cause a new impeller to cavitate and reduce pressure. New pump is expensive. I bought the R&R rebuild kit ($150). Really nice kit and easy to do. The wear plates are stainless and can be flipped over and re-used if they get scored.

that sucks. i h=guess another good reason to swap them each year