March 815 Pump Repair Help

[y2jrock60]

I've been using a March 815 Pump to transfer strike water and fly sparge for the past three years. The pump has been working great up until a week ago when it stopped pumping during a sparge. I thought there might have been an issue with the blade, but after taking the front cover off I determined that wasn't the case.

The motor shaft is able to spin when there is no power going to it. However, as soon as it is powered it locks up and you're unable to turn the shaft by hand. I don't know too much about electric motors, but I believe it has something to with the motor not cycling polarity to spin the shaft, it just locks up when powered. For those of you out there with electric motor experience, is this something I can fix on my own? I'm comfortable removing the motor components from the housing and soldering/desoldering. What would cause the the motor to lock up under load?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Did you drop it? Sometimes case damage will allow the shafts to spin freely by hand but lock up under load.

March has great support and Walter should be along shortly.

 

[WalterAtMarchPump]

Im only guessing without seeing it and there's not much info to go on....but my (GUESS) would be the motors tweaked. Take the pump head off and try running it.....if it runs no problem then your pump head may be misaligned. If it still doesn't work then the motors probably tweaked off center. If you can afford the downtime then give Wayne in service a call and get an RGA# and send it back for us to check it out for you. turn around time is usually 1 day as he doesn't have much going on in repair dept right now.

 

[TeeJo]

It's done.

The moto locking up under power typically means that one of the windings has a break in it.

Now, if you can see the broken bits, it may actually be able to be patched together, but it's still sketchy.

I bought a generator from a Pawn Shop, that might qualify as the only good deal ever got from there, as I paid him less than he had put into it in gasoline. I found a winding that had got loose and rubbed through. I scraped the varnish off the wires, pressed them back where they belonged, and soldered a wee jumper across the break. Then glued everything in place with a dab of super glue to hold things down, and a smear of 40 minute epoxy to seal and lock all in place. Still works.

Unless you get lucky and find the break, or find that the brush housing has rotated or some similar simple fix, I think you now have some spare parts.

TeeJo