Impeller change 4 a Westerbeke 21

[GDEMING]

I recently purchased a 1985 Nonsuch 26 with a Westerbeke 21 diesel. What''s the easiest procedure to change the impeller in the fresh water intake pump? There doesn''t seem to be a lot of room.

[Denr]

The easiest way to change the impeller would be to pull the engine, like it is with my W27. Short of pulling the engine you could remove the pump but that would mean realigning the drive tang of the impeller shaft so you''ll just have to do it like the rest of us, learn to work backwards. I would strongly suggest that you buy a second shaft and have a your spare impeller pre-mounted to exchange it in a flash if required without the need to remove the snap ring to get at the impeller and don''t forget to replace the paper gasket on the cover.

Depending on the age of the pump you might consider rebuilding it which would require that the pump be removed from the engine anyway. A rebuild consists of two plain bearings and two lip seals. Roughly $15 in bits, a new pump costs approximately $300, thanks Westerbeke!

[tonyod]

I have the same engine in my Niagara 31 and recently changed the impeller. I pulled the whole darn pump off the engine as I lacked the required attributes of a contorsionist to complete the job while the pump remained on the engine.

[WHOOSH]

When I last talked to two ace local engine mechanics here in St. Pete, they both told me to just take off the damn water pump and then replace the impeller. I found that the only (tho'' not an easy) option for our W60; for the W71, it''s far easier to remove just the impeller. I think their advice was based on every engine (and its installation) being different and the normal orientation a tradesman has to settle on one workable, routine method and just get good at it for all the obvious reasons.

Jack