house water pump acting up

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williamabernathy

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Hi, all. My house water pump (Jabsco 4.3gpm) has begun acting contrary. At times, it works fine, cycling on as needed. At other times, it (a) won't kick on when the pressure drops or (b) runs for a bit, then won't kick on. Remedy has been to rap the thing with my knuckles or a yardstick. Then it whirs into operation and recharges the system. Then it might work fine for a while, or not. There's no way to tell. Anyway, is this just a dying pump, or is there something I might do to remedy it?

Many thanks for your feedback.
 
First open the top of the pump and make sure the hole for the pressure switch is not blocked

Or it could be a motor issue...
 
You didn't give any indication of how old the pump is... Pascal's probably correct, either the pressure switch or the motor. If it's an old pump, motor brushes may be worn out or are "hanging up."
 
Thanks to both Pascal and Vic for comments. The pump appears pretty new (boat is only 7 months old to me). I took the pump apart (mostly), but nothing appeared clogged, but I still need to really take apart the pressure switch. Until I do that, I can't rule out the switch.
 
Another option is to simply replace the pump. These are typically a little over $100 and repair kits are often close to one half the cost of a new pump.
 
7 month old boat to you but how old is boat and pump overall?
They have a good warranty.
Someone I know just read off the serial # to them and they shipped him a new pump!
I think he had a shurflo though.
 
I'll ask an obvious dumb question - are you sure there is no electrical issue? I don't see anything in your description that entirely rules it out. My pump was being ornery earlier this year, and I discovered there was a loose connector in the ground wire, in a place that wasn't obvious and hidden by tape. Apparently pump vibration or boat motion would wiggle it loose from time to time. But I would get down there and whack the pump and it would start working again, because in doing so, I also happened to jog the connector.

Perhaps you could learn something if the next time it is in the "not working" state, you do some probing with a voltmeter. At least that might isolate the trouble to the motor, the switch or the wiring.
 
Well, the mystery seems to be solved, but I'm not too sure how or why. Pressure switch proved to be fine -- when removed from the pump, it always switched on/off properly, per multimeter. When reassembling, I made sure to clean contacts, which were just a bit cruddy (but not that bad, really). But the trick seemed to be when I just lightly tapped the bottom of the pump with a screwdriver. It clicked on and has been working reliably ever since (I ran the hell out of it Saturday....always good to go at full flow, slow flow, trickle, off/on). Oh, well...go figure. But thanks to all for your comments. They're all very much appreciated.
 
When you say, "tapped the bottom of the pump" are you talking about tapping the motor or just the pump housing?
 
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