Water Pump Replacement

Occasionally, I am forced to make some repairs to my old boat in order to keep her fishing.

Generally I don't mind making these repairs, as I do like the challenge of fixing problems and learning of new things, especially when it comes to boats/baits/fishing.

The last couple trips out I had a warning buzzer sounding after making a long run, this alarm was indicating an overheating issue.  With the water pump impeller being original to the engine (30 years old & untold hours on it) I decided to start the repair by changing it out for a new one.

After much online research and talking with several folks that know about these things I begun the dis assembly process.

motor with lower unit removed

lower unit with old water pump housing removed and ready for clean up

old exhaust leg gasket (probably need to replace this...maybe ??)

New parts kit arrived, time to start assembly

water pump impellers,  new on left, old on right.

old stainless steel impeller cup, notice the wear grooves

new stainless steel impeller cup ready for installation

lower unit with all the new parts installed and ready to go back on the engine.

After I got everything back together I took it to the boat launch and backed it in the water for a test fire.   Upon starting the was a nice strong stream of water shooting out of the tale tale hole, so everything in the pump area seemed to be working as designed.  A couple quick shifts from forward  to reverse, just to make sure I had all the linkage connected properly and everything seemed to be correct. 

   All in all this was not a real hard project.... the hardest part was re-connecting the shift shaft linkage which is located under the carburetors on the power head.   They are located in place you cannot hardly even see it, let alone work on it...but after a short while of  frustration I finally got it connected right...I'm sure the marine mechanics that do this sort of thing a lot have a few tricks that would have helped save some time but it's a good feeling to be able to solve problems yourself.

 Now to find some time to take her out and make a few long runs to see if the over heating issue is fixed.

Recent Stuff

A couple shad colored spinnerbaits I made for myself for and upcoming musky trip.

 

 

Some shad bodies I did for a friend recently

 

 

Comparing Two Different 9" Shad Riggings

As promised...a short video of the ASO rig running next to one of my jig head rigs at a slow trolling speed.

The ASO rig is on the bottom rigged on a cisco colored shad body and the jig head rig is the top one with the perch flavored shad.   Both are rigged with my standard 9" shad body.

The jig head rig shows more belly roll but the ASO rig has more of a head shaking wobble.

Something New For Me To Try

My German friends were kind enough to send me some trolling rigs that they designed and manufacture for use with shad bodies.   These  are made to fit specific size bodies and are available in different weights to fish the various levels of the water column.   While these are primarily made for fishing pike,  I wanted to try them for muskies......I'm also gonna see how well they work when casting.  

These are very well made from premium components and show a very high level of craftsmanship....but as with most any bait or rig that is transitioning from another species to muskies I may need to up size the hooks a size or two.

Shown in the first photo is a light version and a heavy version for both a 3" size body and a 4" size body.

You can tell the difference in the weighting by the thickness of the lips.   Even though these are small they are fairly heavy due to being made from what appears to be stainless steel.

Here's a 3-3/4" swimbait rigged with the 4" size light version

I wanted these smaller sizes to use for bass, white bass and stripers here in the river close to home.

Now here is a photo of the larger sizes they sent me.

These are the ones I'm going to use for muskies this fall.

 Shown from left to right

a 9" light model

10" medium 

A12" size in both heavy and light

Here's a 9" shad body rigged up and ready to run.

I am pretty excited to get out and see how these rigs work

I just may have to sneak out later today and give them a swim.

I'll try to shoot a short video of them if the water conditions will allow it....If I can I'll be sure to post it here ...and also on my facebook page.

More Posts From Facebook

Here is several more photos that I've posted on facebook recently

4 flavors of 6" shad bodies.

Peacock Bass

Psycho Firetiger

Hot Pike

Perch

Two of Brad Roberts hand poured creations that I painted for him recently

This one was done in a Spotted Sucker pattern

This one is in the ever popular Dr.Carp