Cruisair raw water circulation pump

Four Suns

Four Suns

Not a pot stirrer
TECHNICAL Contributor
Oct 4, 2006
10,533
Williamsburg, VA
Boat Info
2003 480 DB
Engines
QSM-11 Diesels
Anyone here ever have to service/replace their Cruisair raw water circulation pump? I have two of them and the one that feeds the salon's 3 units is making an awful noise and the upper salon AC unit died today with a low-water flow warning. I'll probably take the wet end off and see what that looks like... I believe the pump is their "230 volt" PMA1000C pump.

http://www.pumpagents.com/MarchPumps/0150-0147-0100.html

and the wet end:

http://www.pumpagents.com/partpages/MarchPumps/AC-5C.html

I assume these things can be repaired... how difficult can it be..

I did some searches and have seen other people have had trouble with the magnetic piece on the impeller rusting away and falling apart...

Anyone ever deal with these things?
 
Gary,

These babies are pretty tough and very easy to service. I replaced the entire wet end on one in a prior boat a number of years ago. The guts of the wet end are just plastic and over the years the parts wear and the tolerances go to hell. I found a small clam inside of one of mine once, no wonder it was making noise and not pumping. The motor ends on the smaller units are totally sealed and submersible. There is a cooling "coil" in the motor that is looped right off the wet end to keep the motor running cool. This cooling loop can get clogged and overheat the motor, which happended to me once too. Once I let the motor cool and cleaned out the cooling loop it worked fine. I think it has an internal circuit breaker. Yours are much bigger but look like just a bigger version of the same design. The parts can be had on the internet, here is the vendor I used: http://www.depcopump.com/marine.htm
 
depco has it listed in their catalog but they don't have a price...

MA AC-5C-MD 230V

Mine is not a sealed unit. It has a 1" inlet and feeds a 3-way manifold that is 1/2".

I guess I'll pull the thing apart tomorrow and see what is inside the wet end...
 
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Gary

I have two pumps one feed four air conditioning units and one feeds just one. The one that feeds the four units went. It lhas a bronze pump head on it and it leaked. It is a 3,000 gph pump. The salt got to the motor and I had to replace it. About $1,500 for the pump. It was not hard to replace, only issue was getting the elbows off the old pump and tightening them on to the new pump. There were four bolts holding the pump down and of course the wires. I needed a really big pipe wrench to remove and tighten the elbows.. Thepump is 230 volts. I had to get it from the Crusair distrobutor.

Mr Salt
2001 540 CPMY
Caterpillar C-12s
Cape May, NJ
 
$1,500?!!?! Holy crap!

Your boat is a much bigger boat hence the bigger prices...
 
Gary

It is a big pump and is all bronze. It had to be special ordered. My hull is only 51 feet but Sea Ray included the the swim platform in the measurement. There is a lot of room in the boat.

Mr Salt
2004 540 CPMY
Caterpillar C-12s
Cape May, NJ
 
The Cruisair PMA1000c (March AC-5C-MD)is an air cooled pump with an open motor and as such has two oil ports for the bearings, one at each end. Squirt some machine oil in there it may help. The other thing is the pump head is easy to rebuild if you can get the parts. A GOOD marine store will have them but not all. Usually a cleaning is all that is needed.



boatacguy.com
 
OK...

I got the thing off at lunch and brought it back to my shop.

DSC_0099-1.jpg


Why is it there is ALWAYS one mounting screw that has a stripped head on it? Does Sea Ray do this on purpose?

I noticed there is a little leak at the 1" NPT fitting. The mounting has this thing jammed up against a bulkhead and there should really be a 90 degree NPT fitting on that thing instead of a straight one. I think I'll do a cool mod and fix that.

I pulled the head apart and the area with the donut magnet/bearing was filled with grit/dirt:

DSC_0105-1.jpg


The water chamber, shaft, and impeller looked ok though. The dry area of the motor looked fine and spinning it by hand didn't reveal any weird noise. I'll hook it up to AC tonight and see if it makes any noise. I did notice there are oil ports on it:

DSC_0100-2.jpg


I didn't know these things had to be maintained with oil... Sure isn't in the manual as I recall.

So that's the poop. I think I'll clean it up and see what it does. I suspect it is just a bunch of grit/dirt in the wet end around the shaft/donut magnet.

And I only busted up one knuckle getting the damn thing off that stripped screw:

DSC_0093.jpg
 
Stray Cat said:
Is that a grounding lug on the manifold? (Tee)
Click to expand...

Yes. It's a copper manifold.... not sure what the 1/2 FNPT fitting is made from on it.. it's all painted white.... with the electronics sealer dripping on the white paint.
 
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Gary,
I just went thru this. I have 2 pumps on my boat also.
The large one feeds the salon, master and guest berths. The other small one feeds the helm air(which is absolutly worthless).
Anyway the large motor started to get really loud(bearings were going out in the motor)So I thought I'll just replace the motor. Holy sh!t $$$$$$$$$$.
Any way I'm working on it and my Air guy goes buy and says hey I got a new one I just took off a Maritimo for $150.00 Done deal.
My original pump was bronze and this one is plastic but it was motor and pump. I think all that matters is amount of water flow. Research all. A pump is a pump is a pump.
Jack
 
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I don't have the expensive bronze one. Mine is the 1000 gph one with a plastic wet end and it's about $400 for a new one.

My bridge air works pretty good... Keeps the bridge at 72 degrees regardless of how hot it is outside. It's a split system with two air handlers... but my bridge is smaller.

I guess I need to go oil that motor up as well....
 
I guess I need to go oil that motor up as well....[/quote]

I have to learn everything the hard way. 10 cents worth of oil or 300.00 motor. Sometimes I scare myself.
Jack
 
Jack,
Pumps a pump as long as u match the GPH.

Gary,
Im pretty surprised to see oil ports. There should be a plug in the top of the oil port to stop debris from going in. Hummm......


Rob
 
Four Suns said:
OK............................And I only busted up one knuckle getting the damn thing off that stripped screw:

DSC_0093.jpg
Click to expand...

What is wrong with you? How many times will I get to ask you that this year?
Did you look at Jabsco/ITT?
 
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I'd be really cautious about that copper manifold. Is that Sea Ray OEM? Copper and seawater don't get along very well.

I replaced my pump last summer. The PO had used a copper fitting to attach the outlet hose and when I removed the hose it was all but disintegrated. What was left was paper thin and it had eroded completely through in several places. If that thing had let go while the boat was unattended it would have been a very bad day.
 
Robski97 said:
Jack,
Pumps a pump as long as u match the GPH.

Gary,
Im pretty surprised to see oil ports. There should be a plug in the top of the oil port to stop debris from going in. Hummm......


Rob
Click to expand...
Remember we are dealing with Gary. If there is anyone whom I would assume would be smart enough to match the GPH it would be Gary.
Did I use would enough? Cool.
Jack
 
Tob,
Im pretty sure all marine condensor coils are made of copper .

Jack,
I expect Gary to paint his impellar flame colors for WOW factor .... He has a standard to live up too...


Rob
 
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