Frag_Dog
Well-Known Member
I'll preface this by saying do it at your own risk. This may violate warrenty and you could electricute yourself, so be careful and I take no resposibility ect...
I don't know if others are or having issue with their March pumps but I was, so I did up this quick guide. The issue I was having with my march pump was it wasn't starting. I tried giving it a tap / shake but couldn't get it to start up. There was power going to the motor, and I could hear a soft buzzing of an electirc motor trying to start but unable. It cracked the shits on that brew day and did a manual transfer using a bucket rather then try and sort it out in between sparges. Not fun! After the brew was done I pulled the motor off the housing. I thought that the bearings in the motor or the brushes had gone. This is pretty easy to do, just remove the 4x flathead screws with washers on the front of the pump housing.
Once removed the I checked the motor and it spun freely. Connecting it to power saw it spin up no worries with no noise at all. I checked the inside of the pump housing and there was no signs of wear, or any indication of contact between the motor flywheel and the housing.
Next step was to check the internals of the pump itself. I didn't think this could be the issue because its a magnetic drive. Removing the 4x phillips screws from the housing gets access to the 4x flathead screws which hold the housing togeter.
Be careful when removing this backplate as the seal is contained on it. Mine came apart pretty easily.
Once apart the impeller can be accessed. I tried to rotate it and found it supprisingly difficult. I pulled it off the spindle it sits on. Once off I noticed a bit of gunk on the spindle. A clean cloth with some water and it cleaned up nicely. I also used a philips screwdriver with the same cloth to clean the inside of the impeller. Once re-installed the impeller spun freely. It did squeek a little, so I gave it another clean and that seemed to fix the squeek.
Reinstallation is the reverse of assembley. One thing to be mindfull of is when reinstalling the backplate with the seal, tighten the screws up one at a time. This way you don't squish the seal on one side, and have a gap in the other.
Once I had it back together I did a dry run and found it squeeled like a stuck pig. So I pulled it back apart and used some Keg Lube on the spindle. This seemed to stop the noise but it was sounding a lot louder then it did previously. Once I ran some water in it however it seemed to quiten right down. The lube could probibly be done without.
Note:
You don't need to remove the coupler that joins the motor to the magnetic pump asselbly. For my installation I had to remove 2x of these screws so i just removed the whole thing. Depending on how you mount yours, you might be able to just remove the 4x phillips screws.
I don't know if others are or having issue with their March pumps but I was, so I did up this quick guide. The issue I was having with my march pump was it wasn't starting. I tried giving it a tap / shake but couldn't get it to start up. There was power going to the motor, and I could hear a soft buzzing of an electirc motor trying to start but unable. It cracked the shits on that brew day and did a manual transfer using a bucket rather then try and sort it out in between sparges. Not fun! After the brew was done I pulled the motor off the housing. I thought that the bearings in the motor or the brushes had gone. This is pretty easy to do, just remove the 4x flathead screws with washers on the front of the pump housing.
Once removed the I checked the motor and it spun freely. Connecting it to power saw it spin up no worries with no noise at all. I checked the inside of the pump housing and there was no signs of wear, or any indication of contact between the motor flywheel and the housing.
Next step was to check the internals of the pump itself. I didn't think this could be the issue because its a magnetic drive. Removing the 4x phillips screws from the housing gets access to the 4x flathead screws which hold the housing togeter.
Be careful when removing this backplate as the seal is contained on it. Mine came apart pretty easily.
Once apart the impeller can be accessed. I tried to rotate it and found it supprisingly difficult. I pulled it off the spindle it sits on. Once off I noticed a bit of gunk on the spindle. A clean cloth with some water and it cleaned up nicely. I also used a philips screwdriver with the same cloth to clean the inside of the impeller. Once re-installed the impeller spun freely. It did squeek a little, so I gave it another clean and that seemed to fix the squeek.
Reinstallation is the reverse of assembley. One thing to be mindfull of is when reinstalling the backplate with the seal, tighten the screws up one at a time. This way you don't squish the seal on one side, and have a gap in the other.
Once I had it back together I did a dry run and found it squeeled like a stuck pig. So I pulled it back apart and used some Keg Lube on the spindle. This seemed to stop the noise but it was sounding a lot louder then it did previously. Once I ran some water in it however it seemed to quiten right down. The lube could probibly be done without.
Note:
You don't need to remove the coupler that joins the motor to the magnetic pump asselbly. For my installation I had to remove 2x of these screws so i just removed the whole thing. Depending on how you mount yours, you might be able to just remove the 4x phillips screws.