galley maid pump problems

[pointintime]

toilet in front bedroom in bow of boat will not flush. i have replaced the old selinoid in generator room but it still wont flush. i thought i would replace the stator but not sure how. any one sure how to do this. i have tried once already but when i take of the copper water line running from one side of the pump to the other the water just spews out of the pump in about a 7 inch water column. am i doing something wrong?

[SKYCHENEY]

First close the seacocks, then disassemble. The stator is easy to change, if that is the problem. What are the sypmtoms? If you are just not getting any water into the toilet, it is probably the stator. If you have no pumping, then is the motor running? Is it getting power? We need some more information.

[pointintime]

the pump does not run at all . about a week ago it started flipping the breaker so i got under the sink and took the wires off the switch then put them back on and it worked for a few more days . then one morning it just stopped. so i tested the switch , it was fine so replaced the selenoid a couple of days ago, still nothing so i thought i would replace the stator but the excess water problem arose. i shut off a valve in the front bed room where the strainer is located in the floor with the other 2 valves for the holding tank and through hull discharge, along with the valve at the rear of the port engine room(not the main engine valve) . im just nervous about that water getting into my generator room. i know the lines have to purge i guess?

[pointintime]

is there another valve i dont know about? i sure do appreciate any help i can get . thanks

[Pascal]

you may want to tell us what kind of boat you have an what year...

on a GM head, you have one seacock and strainer for the water intake... follow the hose and close the seacock. you may have so water left in the lines but not much.

you REALLY need to know where ALL your seacocks are located, on a boat it's a critical thing to know for obvious reason.

now, if the motor isnt' running, it likely not to be the stator... if the motor was turning and water wasn't getting pumped, then yes, it could be.

first thing to check is if you get power at the motor terminal when attempting to flush. The breaker popping and then intermittent running point to the motor in my opinion, so check for power at the terminal while someholds the switch. If you dont' have power there, then dont' bother with the stator just yet.

[rwetherington]

take a volt meter and check to see if you have power at the solenoid. One side of the solenoid is aways has power. If you have power there then have someone press the toliet switch and hold it while you check to see if you have power on the other side of solenoid if you have power there, then check power at the pump. If you have power there you may have a stuck pump or a motor that is burned up. If you do not have power on the cold side of solenoid when the switch is pushed just that a jumper wire from hot side to cold side and see if pump will run. If pump runs you have problems either at switch or solenoid. to check that take a jumper with from hot side of solenoid to little red wire on solenoid that should make solenoid work.

Roger Wetherington

[the kuz]

If you have power to the motor and it still doesn't run, try tapping on the motor case with something about as heavy as vise grips while power is being applied to the motor for a few seconds at a time. Sometimes (especially after sitting for a long while) the motor can lock up. Once free, it will usually keep working if you use it regularly, and it's not getting wet (check for any signs of water leaks). Also, be sure all electrical connections are clean (no green stuff at all). Keep some BOE-SHIELD or similar on the conections and any exposed metal. Regards, Bob K

[Ron Childress]

The boat is a 1979 58 MY

[Nonchalant1]

The copper tube is a primer for the discharge side. Galleymaid discontinued use of that tube many years ago due to crossover flow filling up people's holding tanks when the boat is sitting. The priming function was only a precaution for if the head was installed wrong and there is a downwards slope away from the pump in the big discharge suction line between the toilet and the pump. If that big discharge suction line in your boat is level or downwards slope towards your head pump, you can remove the copper tube and put brass NPT threaded pipe plugs in the holes.

If the seacock for the head intake is completely closed, you should not get any significant water out of that copper tube when you take it off. You'll only get a little draining from the line.

The other possibility is that somebody set your boat up with fresh water flush using the freshwater pressure side system. That will reduce head smell from marine organisms dying in the standing water in the intake tube and smelling when you first flush it after it has not been used for a long time. Normally, a freshwater flush system needs special precautions to prevent cross contamination and can use the unpressurized freshwater tank as the source.

Follow the raw water intake tube from the head pump and see where it comes from. In a 53MY there are frequently multiple seacocks in that bilge under the fwd stateroom floor. Mine has an air conditioner water supply, the raw water washdown and the fwd head, all with seacocks and strainers in there.

If your head pump was flipping the breaker, maybe it was getting stuck from things wrapped up around the stator or macerator T. If so, it may now be either completely stuck or completely burned out.

To check to see if it's stuck, first check for power at the correct terminals as mentioned above. Then if there's power but it doesn't run, get a five gallon bucket to catch the slop, rubber gloves, etc. and take off the big discharge hose that runs from the toilet to the pump :-( Then remove the 6 small bolts holding the discharge pump housing cone to the pump motor frame. You can leave for later the smaller hose and the elbow that comes out of the top of the pump. What you'll find inside that housing is the macerator T, the rubber stator and the bronze spiral rotor. The stuff that gets sucked out of the head goes past the spinning T macerator and through the space between the stator and the rotor. If you find years of fiber, string, etc. wrapped around the macerator T you can sometimes fix it by just unwrapping and cutting off what you find. If you have to take the rubber stator off, you have to unscrew the spiral rotor because the macerator T keeps the stator from coming off. You just hit the T on the top of the T with a hammer. This crushes the junk in the spaces between the threads of the rotor and the motor, and you can usually just unscrew it then. If not, yo m ay have to disassemble the other side to hold the shaft from spinning while you unscrew the rotor. The macerator T has a left hand thread and has been permanently peened to stay on the rotor, although sometimes they come off and have to be peened again.

After cleaning and probably replacing the expensive rubber stator, you can screw the sprial rotor back on by hand. The motor spins in the direction that tightens it, so it won't come off.

Reassemble in reverse order and prime it by pouring water into the toilet and waiting breifly running the pump until it develops suction. If you left that copper tube on, it'll self prime.

If you discover that the motor is burned out, remove the whole thing and send it to GalleyMaid and they'll rebuild it for you like new.

Doug Shuman

[thoward]

If you go to where the motors are you will be able to hear the solenoid crack when the button is pushed. You could jump it too. If the motor does not turn then that is most likely your problem.