I opened the pool myself for the first time this year, only to find the pump (Waterway Champs 110) was leaking between the pump housing and the motor.

A quick search shows that the likely suspect is the shaft seal, which did look terrible upon opening the pump up. I followed what is suggested here to replace the seal: no touching the white ceramic or the black carbon graphite(? is it ?); used dish soap to lubricate the metal housing of the white ceramic, then use a PVC coupling to knock this thing into the pump seal plate; used dish soap to lubricate the part of the impeller where the rubber of the black half touches and then pressed it in using 3/4 in coupling; made sure the two mating surface was clean.

Over the last two days, I went through 3 sets of shaft seals (Waterway 319-3100B OEM from local pool store that built my pool). It was leaking just a tiny little bit after the first attempt. But the OCD in me wanted to get it 100% right. The next two attempts actually made it worse.

I also changed the face plate gasket, the impeller. Other parts looked okay to me. This is driving me nuts... I must have taken this apart and assembled back on 10 times over the last two days. Can anyone help me? I am very desperate...

I have two guesses: 1. I used the old impeller washer (part 11 in this link: Waterway Champion 56-Frame Pump Parts - INYOPools.com), which looks pretty worn, but pool store doesn't have it: they said this doesn't create watertight seal anyway; I tried my best to get a washer that looks like this one in Home Depot and apparently it didn't work. 2. There is an "o-ring looking" thing at the back of the diffuser (see pic) that looks quite worn. But local store doesn't carry it and I don't think this is supposed to seal anything.

For the impeller washer, I have an Amazon order coming in. For the diffuser, if you guys agree this is not the problem, I won't replace it as it is quite expensive.

Am I missing anything?

In the meantime, can I run the pump while it is dripping? It drips like 1 drop/sec on start-up and then it looks more like it's slowly seeping water, and I don't actually see water dripping, but rather the concrete slab getting wet. The leaking gets better if I shut down the main drain possibly because the PSI drops in the filter housing. Is there any downside to shutting off the main drain completely?

I am very sorry for this long post. One last request: if anyone can identify the attached cartridge filter unit for me, it is much appreciated. It is not "Outdoor Pro"... Says "Waterway plastics", but no model number and I don't see any one they currently sell that look anything like mine.

Many thanks!!