Replaced pump and now small leak possibly the shaft seal.

[Flippy]

Hi All -

My main pool pump motor (p6ea6g-207l) went out on Christmas Eve. I was just able to replace the motor yesterday and thought all was good. I went out today and noticed a small amount of water under the pump. I dried it off and came back later and another small amount of water. Think quarter sized amount of water. I think it is the shaft seal that is leaking. I replaced the seal when I replaced the pump. Any suggestions on something I can do before I try to replace the seal again? Any pro tips on what to check/do if I have to replace the seal again? Also is it OK to run this until I get another shaft seal I ordered which should be here by Wed. Any help is much appreciated. Also this is the third pump motor I replaced and only one to leak so far.

Thanks Philip

 

[mas985]

There are only a few things that will cause a new seal to leak:

The seal was not installed in the correct direction

The seal was not perfectly seated in the motor plate

The seal surfaces were not perfectly clean when installed

The seal was defective

The first three are probably more common than the last one.

 

[gary300]

There is also a large O-ring between the seal plate and the pump body. You should replace this O-ring as it will become deformed after a while. You need to put a good deal of silcone on the O-ring and then as you tighten the clamp use a rubber mallet to tap the clamp as it is being tightened to seat it and get the best seal. Tighten the clamp by hand as much as you can but do not use any tools on it. You can purchase a "go-kit" for your pump that includes all seals and o-rings.

 

[mas985]

Good point, are you sure it was the seal that was leaking?

 

[Flippy]

Thanks for the replies. I did replace the gasket between seal plate and body. I pulled the pump out again this afternoon and found a suspect gasket that is in front of the impeller on a bolt like plastic screw. I could tell there was water intrusion on the shaft as there was a fine layer of rust. I cleaned both sides of the seal and replaced the gasket. I am running the pool now to see the results.

 

[Flippy]

Update. The leak is now way smaller and from looking at it I only see about a dime size drop of water at any given time. However I can no longer tell if it is from the dry end or the wet end of the pump. Just feeling under the pump it seems it is now wet where the two sides meet and not perfectly under the pump. I will investigate more tomorrow when I have more daylight. This is very aggravating.

 

[Flippy]

Hopefully last update. The pump was still leaking from the dry side when I got the new shaft seal in the mail today. I pulled the pump out again and replaced the seal. This time so far it looks like it is not leaking after over an hour of use. The only difference I know is that I used an OEM Pentair seal this time and some off brand from a pool store before. The OEM seal was much harder to put on the shaft of the impeller and looked better made IMHO. Fingers crossed that this resolves the leak.