1997 Crusader 454XL raw water pump leak

[tgmkwill]

Impeller and wear plate was just replaced on engine.

Water sprays enough from the small "retaining screw cam" that I could tell from looking at diagrams. It is a single flathead screw near the raw water intake hose clamp area.

Water dibbles out of even with engine off and seacock open.

Engine running, raw water starts to spray and drip faster. Enough to accumulate about a gallon of raw water in the bilge directly under pump/pulley area. After 1 hour run in the bilge under engine (not enough to flow through the next limber hole into the overall bile area). No temp issue or water pump alarm. Water does spray on other parts, pulleys etc. while engine is running at higher rpms, so of course this unwanted.

Any ideas from best case to worst case scenario before checking into this?

I attached pics of similar water pump (not exactly like mine) but that #6 retaining cam screw is universal on a lot of the raw water pump diagrams i could find, and that is where the leak is.

Thanks !

[g36]

Does it tighten anymore or stripped threads? If the threads are in good shape why not try some permetex / silicone sealant near the screw head on the threads and re install it again.

[km1125]

Yea, like g36 says... if the screw can be tightened on the cam then just put some thread sealant on the screw before putting it in and tightening it down. You probably don't even have to disassemble the pump, just pull the screw out, clean things, put sealant on there and tighten back down. Loctite makes a thread sealant but any permatex or silicone or similar will do the job. Heck you could put 5200 on but you might never get the screw out again!!

[Viper]

Ya it's not a biggie here and the solution can be what has been suggested above but if it won't tighten because it's stripped, then you need to remedy that as I'm sure it holds the cam in place and you don't want to take shortcuts here if that's the case. Hopefully it wasn't over-tightened and stripped the cam.

[tgmkwill]

Thanks for all advice !