I change the impeller every year which I don't mind. It's the only cheap and easy thing to do on these boats. Quite often the rear of the plastic body is wiped out so I do that too. The front side has the SS plate that is always fine. The outer diameter surface is good too. Just the rear gets wiped out.
FYI I also debur the ID of the housings and the OD of the impeller looks much better at the end of the year than before I'd ever done that.

Drew Marine makes a SS body that I'd have to screw fittings into. I don't think that will allow enough room for the inlet hose to clear the offshore mount without cutting a large chunk out of it. A pain to do.
Anybody have the same question, tried it and it worked w/o cutting?

KPM makes a run dry pump that has push on fittings incorprated into it.
How durable is the body material? Anybody had the same wear and switched to the KPM with excellent results?

Merc makes a brass body replacement with fittings incorporated.
How does it fare?

the KPM pump didnt work for me AT ALL..

i just change the entire housing, you can buy the kit with new impeller for aroun 70$ , and everything is new

KPM didn't work for me either.

I have seen nothing but problems with the KPM pumps. After the boats have been pulled from the water and the water has drained out of the drive/pickup, the pump won't pick up. Once it has been primed, it worked ok. Still didn't move nearly as much as the Merc pump.
Maiden, have you looked at installing 90* screw in fittings to clear the mount? That's usually what I do with pump that use screw in fittings.
Eddie

I'm thinking I'm gonna put the SS bodies on and a 90* fitting to a strainer.
Anyone use the SS body?

Yupper. They are really nice and won't break the bank either. I can't believe that Mercury Racing uses a plastic pump housing . Here is mine and my sea strainer:

Thanks for the pics and recommendation. Done deal!

I have the Hardin Stainless body also. Works great. Jeff Wurl

Those look great. I thought there were some people who had some kind of problem with them early on in their production. I have the 2 piece merc. ones and would rather go with something that doesn't have all the gaskets, etc. But they do pump a bunch of water which I need every drop of.
I guess the good part of the merc ones is that with the wear plates you always get back to ideal tolerances when you rebuild. Does the Hardin unit seem to keep up with the Merc. in your experiences?

...and are you locked into buying a certain hardin impeller forever or do the merc ones fit?