Seawater/Fuel pump
 

I bet this has been talked about but any input will help.We have 2003/ 500EFI with 250 hrs

Was in the boat checking things out and found oil on the bottom side of both pumps. Not so much to start dripping into the bilge...I did know that they ran lube in them but never spotted a leak so never checked them.I pulled the fill plugs and they are way over full...No water just oil and gas...Checked the tube running from the weep hole on the fuel pump and it is dry..Removed one of the fuel/water pumps tonight and every thing looks fine as far as the cam in the fuel pump is concerned..I love what you have to do just to drain the oil in this set up..:(

How bad do they leak? with 250 hrs..I find it interesting that the weep tube is dry but I have gas with the lube.

Will I be ok just putting them back together and keeping a close eye on the level to see what happens or should I replace the fuel pumps??

Can the pumps be rebuilt??

If I do replace the fuel pumps is there a pump that I should be checking out other than Mercurys??
Thanks for any help!!
Bob

No one has ever had this issue???

Yes I had my problem with one pump around the same hours found out after the fact merc wants us to change fluid every oil change bad design only one plug to fill with! after mine leaked put new one on, what needs to happen is drill and tap lower part of housing for a drain plug, for now I remove the fuel pump and wipe out the lube and refill and install new gasket I've got 500 hrs now it's another excuse to be in the hatch:D now

Bad engineering.... Been there...

They all leak. Just change the fluid once a year. Might as well do the impellors too while everything is apart.

525's are the same way. Gas get's into the shaft oil and breaks it down and will cause a failure. Every season I drain and replace with fresh drive oil.
I've setup a plastic syringe and flex tube to extract it on the every other years that I don't replace the Impeller. Make's it a quick change without having to pull the whole assembly!

Same here. I use a drill pump with a small ID silicone line attached and suck the old fluid out.

I thought I had read a post somewhere on the subject where some one had mentioned there were 2 plugs on his pump, and it came that way from Merc. Mine is a 1995 BBC. Wonder if Merc had the sense to put both a filler and a drain plug in the later models. Would be nice.

Now that I have them all apart and every thing looks ok I was going to do two things before I put it back together..

It will be very easy to drill and tap the bottom of the housing for a 1/8 pipe plug..

I found that the fill plug is the same thread as the magnetic plugs that goes in my lower unit. It will not interfere with anything in the housing so I thought it may be a good idea is check for metal when changing the lube..

Thanks for all the replies
Bob

Here's a thread from last summer. I use the syringe method mention above and do it when I change everything else every 25 hrs.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...+seawater+pump

Just had both of mine off last weekend for water pump impellers. Mine have 2 plugs and both had alot of gas in them too. One seemed like more gas than lubricant. Where did the lube go? Dont see any leaks.