Hot button rant! If any lister has an alloy (metal) body Whale or other brand manual bilge pump, I *STRONGLY* suggest you disassemble it and inspect the sealing surfaces. These pumps, particularly when in salt or brackish water service, are subject to corrosion and pitting. If the corrosion is severe, the pump may not prime or pump.
When I bought Touche', I inspected the pump and found it to be essentially unusable due to severe pitting and corrosion on the sealing surfaces. A service kit would have been worthless. I bought a new pump. Before installing the new pump, I disassembled it, coated the sealing surfaces with TefGel and reassembled. Kevin Benoit just bought a 35-2 and ran into the same issue. He also bought a new pump and coated the surfaces. I clean Touche's bilge about twice a year. I use the electric pump to empty the bilge until the water is clean dock (city) water. I then test the manual bilge pump and use it to empty the bilge leaving clean dock water in the pump. If, for whatever reason, I use the manual pump to remove brackish or salt water from the bilge, I flush the bilge with dock water and leave dock water in the manual pump. Please test your manual pump at least annually and inspect it if you've never done so. This pump may not only save your boat, it may save you and your family!! Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 10:47 AM, Rick Brass via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > Frank, > > > > It is possible that your Whale manual pump needs to be serviced… > particularly if it has been unused for a long time. > > > > My 25 is a very dry boat and the Whale pump in the cockpit is the only > bilge pump I have ever needed; every six months or so I need to pump out a > gallon or two of water. > > > > I was having the same problem you report – heck of a long time to get the > air out of the suction hose. I bought a kit for the pump and replaced the > seals, flappers, and diaphragm a few years ago. No more problem. Turns out > the rubber parts were getting pretty still from age and – I presume – > oxidation over the years. > > > > Rick Brass > > Washington, NC > > > > >
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