A couple years ago, a friend of mine (Aaron on Bella Star) was giving me some bullshit sob story of how hard(expensive) it was for him to find a replacement fresh water coolant pump for his Yanmar engine.
As he was telling me his story, I remember thinking, “What is this dickhead going on about”? I just went down to Hatton and got a brand new mixing elbow for my Yanmar (3QM30Y) engine. And had no problems getting parts at all. I was also thinking about a sandwich I had eaten the day before…..so delicious, so god damn delicious! So I may or may not have heard how he ended up getting his replaced.
Fast forward to this Labor day weekend. I had just started the engine on my boat, and was untying the dock lines to take off for the weekend. Just as I was about to put it reverse, the engine starts running a little rough and vibrating oddly. I retied the lines and checked the engine compartment.
Smoke!
SHIT!
I shut everything down and started troubleshooting. I noticed the fresh water pump was not spinning and was burning up the alternator belt. My first thought was that this would be an easy fix. Just pull off the old pump, go buy a new pump and bolt it back on. Easy Cheesy, right??
Nope, turns out Aaron was right. Yanmar has discontinued making water pumps for that engine. You can still get the parts to rebuild them, but not the pump housing. And hey, guess what! My pump housing was fucked up!! So I get the old, “you can always check craigslist or ebay”
If Yanmar still made this pump, the price for a replacement is around $800! I dug around the internet but could not find anything for sale that I could use.
What I did dig up is a website: www.rebuilt-water-pumps.com
It’s a small company down in Oregon. All they do is rebuild water pumps. So I call them up on a Thursday and describe my problem. The guy on the phone says: “Send me your pump, I’ll have it fixed and back to you by next Friday”. I was happy as shit, but was afraid to ask the price for that kind of service. He said it would probably be around $95 dollars. Maybe as high as $125 if the housing was really messed up.
True to his word, he calls me the following Wednesday and says the pump is ready and already in the mail back to me. Please send him a check for $135. The extra ten dollars is to cover the cost of shipping.
Oh and he includes a 3 year warranty on his rebuilds! WHAT!?
I got pump back, and it looks as good as new. He even included a gasket and two tootsie pops. I ate those, before I took the picture, sorry. They were watermelon flavor.
Well this is good to know. If we had ever had a conversation where both of us was sober you might recall that I didn’t need a replacement… I was just wanting to carry one for a spare and had to settle for the rebuild kit. Our water pump is working fine but I’m going to send that guy $135 anyway so I can get some of those watermelon Tootsie Pops. Hatton never gives you candy with your parts. Seriously, next time you’re in there just ask Barb if you can have some candy with your part and see what happens.
Oh, and Aaron, Sorry. I may have gotten your sob story mixed up with Jason (Hello World) Anderson’s. Sorry. :)
That candy in the tray at hatton is nasty!
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