stephelton
Well-Known Member
I've had a couple march pumps for many years now and they've increasingly been unreliable. They symptom they exhibit is that they will start making a low rattling sound shortly before they turn into an alarming high pitched squeal, at which point they stop pumping.
I noticed last night that the flange that attaches to the main pump housing isn't quite aligned with the pump shaft/magnet. Consequently, when the pump head is attached to the flange, the impeller isn't quite aligned with the magnet. I think this problem has been getting worse; when I reattached everything last night, the pump housing was actually touching the magnet and preventing the shaft from turning altogether.
My guess at this point is that the main pump housing is warped or offset slightly, and thereby the flange and pump head that attach to it.
My setup is a bit unusual. I've had these pumps in a few different "pump boxes" over the years. When I started having severe problems with the pumps a couple weeks ago, I decided to build my third version of the pump box (pics below). However, the previous version (Pump Box 2.0) was a ghetto cardboard box (actually, a nice sturdy one from a Hops Direct shipment.) In this setup, I had the box between the housing and the flange, which made for a slightly uneven surface between the two -- I think this might have been part of the problem.
By the way, I'm using march pump bodies with chugger pump heads (I wanted to go all-stainless and/or spend extra money).
So... any thoughts on what might be wrong and what I might do to fix it?
pics:
3.0: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/pdd0qh62oh07vda/AADm_CDFVfHt1ykO17kD0wHla
2.0: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/7ip5cpe9oazoabq/AADx5pDwhcBzyw9plNfZVKzza
I noticed last night that the flange that attaches to the main pump housing isn't quite aligned with the pump shaft/magnet. Consequently, when the pump head is attached to the flange, the impeller isn't quite aligned with the magnet. I think this problem has been getting worse; when I reattached everything last night, the pump housing was actually touching the magnet and preventing the shaft from turning altogether.
My guess at this point is that the main pump housing is warped or offset slightly, and thereby the flange and pump head that attach to it.
My setup is a bit unusual. I've had these pumps in a few different "pump boxes" over the years. When I started having severe problems with the pumps a couple weeks ago, I decided to build my third version of the pump box (pics below). However, the previous version (Pump Box 2.0) was a ghetto cardboard box (actually, a nice sturdy one from a Hops Direct shipment.) In this setup, I had the box between the housing and the flange, which made for a slightly uneven surface between the two -- I think this might have been part of the problem.
By the way, I'm using march pump bodies with chugger pump heads (I wanted to go all-stainless and/or spend extra money).
So... any thoughts on what might be wrong and what I might do to fix it?
pics:
3.0: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/pdd0qh62oh07vda/AADm_CDFVfHt1ykO17kD0wHla
2.0: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/7ip5cpe9oazoabq/AADx5pDwhcBzyw9plNfZVKzza