Hi Joe -
Yes, you are correct.
In this thread Ed Collis had asked/commented about the Fresh Water Circ pump (he said he had no idea where the antifreeze circ pump was located) even though this thread is about the Raw Water pump. I figured it was easier to reply to his concern about the placement of the Fresh Water pump in the same thread as his question. I apologize if this created confusion for anyone.
Best regards,
Peter
I did two things to make this less of a pain.
Had a thicker cover plate made. With the thicker plate I can use thumb screws vs regular screws or caps
https://www.mcmaster.com/knurled-head-thumb-screws/high-profile-knurled-head-thumb-screws/
You only need 4. Have the plate machined with two slots so you can loosen two and remove only two to take the plate off.
Cheers Thor
Thanks for the tease…how about sharing the thread size?
Joe
Thor, did you incorporate a o ring or do you still use the paper gasket?
Paul M
I added a 1mm o-ring. The o~ring diameters and thread sizes need to be measured as the threads could be metric or inch. Take one fastener to any hardware and try out a few nuts.
Slots in the bottom 2 vs a hole for the screws is important as this allows you to to simply loosen two fasteners vs removing them.
Thanks Thor. Mine was made much easier by replacing bolts with studs and nuts as I mentioned earlier but your method would be better yet, essentially a diy speedseal. I had thought of doing that but was unsure of the fine tolerance in the body to cover spacing. If you are able to use an o ring without losing any pump power that is a big help. I’m assuming that you have the o ring in a groove in the cover? Our pumps being below the waterline would help too as the tolerance would be more critical if the impeller needed to self prime every time.
I found a brochure and installation instructions for a speedseal in Sandpiper's “ships paperwork” but no sign of the cover in the spares boxes or anywhere else.
Paul M