Hayward Super Pump Leaking in front of seal plate

[SteveGo]

I am about ready to give up and buy a new pump. I installed this Hayward Super Pump in the mid 90's and over the last couple of years it has been leaking a little. I put in seal kits on several occasions, most recently this year. This year, the second motor I put on it finally gave out with noisy bearings. So I put a new motor and seal kit on it. It still leaked a little, always on the wet side of the seal plate. No amount of re-torqueing of the bolts would help, so I bought a new seal plate and put it on this week. It had no effect whatever on the leak. I am wondering whether the pump body has a hairline crack or is warped at the seal plate mount. I have attached a photo of the leaking pump. The water is coming out at the "peak" of the seal plate where there is a little point there. In the picture you can see a little rooster tail of water streaming up. I thought I would check in here, and see if there is one more thing I can try before caving in and buying a new pump.

I have scanned the forum here, and think I have tried everything mentioned. If there is a crack I cannot see it. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. This pump is up next to my house, and I don't like the amount of water it is now putting out near my walls and foundation, not to mention the wasted water.



Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[JamesW]

Have you replaced the housing gasket?

Part SPX1600T. When you remove the 4 bolts and pull out the motor assembly, you will see the flat gasket that is inserted into the pump housing. There's a thin slot that holds the gasket. Clean the gasket area first then pull out the old gasket and insert the new gasket.

 

[SteveGo]

Yes, replaced as part of seal kit. Took a wooden toothpick and cleaned out the slot. Used Teflon grease on the gasket. Was careful when mating it back to be sure the gasket stayed in the slot.

 

[JamesW]

Might be a cracked housing. Try wiping down the area with paper towels to get a better view of the spot.

 

[mickey4paws]

We also have a Super Pump and when we opened in the spring, it was leaking to where you could see the water pooling at the bottom of the housing. We were going to replace part Hayward SPX1600AA Pump and Strainer Housing Replacement because according to our PB, that's where it was leaking from and the housing was cracked. He had also replaced the motor about 6 or 7 years ago. Well at the time this was happening Ebay was having some special sale (some pool stores sell on Ebay but will send you a receipt from their store so warranty is in effect) so we decided since the pump was so old, and the price was only $85 more for a new pump, to get the new pump. It's the same exact pump, but it's so much quieter than the old one (don't know why).

If you want to replace your housing, I found it on Amazon (you'll have to check to see if it fits your model): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EXHRO4/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_50?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[Swampwoman]

Check your impeller for a very fine crack.

I'd ordered a new motor (because I wanted to go variable speed) already instead of what I'd assumed was a leaking shaft seal. When we got it apart, it was actually a hairline crack in the impeller.

 

[SteveGo]

Thanks for the suggestions. I decided to order a new pump housing, since everything from the seal plate to the motor is new, plus a new housing gasket.

About $200 vs $400+ I guess the wisdom of that choice will be revealed soon. The real bugaboo is all the re-plumbing that has to be done. The intake and out flow lines are have a couple of glued unions each. I don't know if there is enough pristine pipe to put in a couple more. Is it safe to use threaded unions in this application, or should I be gluing it up again?

The intake seems more problematic.

 

[Ted527]

Install threaded unions so the whole pump can be removed in the future

 

[Chemnut]

IMO that elbow before the suction side isn't good. Can you show where the pipes from the top of the pump are going? It sure looks like a hodge podge of couplers, reducers and everything else.

 

[SteveGo]

Thanks everyone. The new pump housing fixed the leak. I removed the hodgepodge of couplings, and put in threaded coupling.