First time impeller replacement

[Bigstic]

So I bought my boat middle of the season last year.  The dealer I got it from said it had been serviced and then this winter they winterized it and did some other service work.  Just yanked it out of storage and decided to put a new impeller in it.  Read some how to's and decided to try without a pulling tool.

First thing I notice.  The exhaust on my HH goes right in front of the housing.  Had to pull the exhaust to get access.  Was pretty simple.  Next thing I see is that all the 8mm bolts still had the factory paint on them.  Once I broke them lose the paint fell off.  That is 10 years on the original impeller but only 170 hours.  Used a pair of 90° needle noise pliers and a couple tugs and the impeller was out.  Was surprised to see moisture in the housing.  Even more surprised to see that roughly 60% of the fins on the impeller were beginning to tear.

Talk about lucking out.  Hoping to get it in the water next week.  This could have been a bad summer.

[vanamp]

My dealer also told me mine was replaced and then at the end of a 100 hour first season with the boat I replaced it and also cracked the original paint on the bolts.  That was 200 hours on that impeller but it was only three years.  It looked a little rough but no tears. 

[Bill_AirJunky]

Sounds like awesome dealers.  

[vanamp]

My dealer actually is a good one I asked the sales guy and he probably assumed since all regular service was done it was replaced.   Had I asked the service guy I'm sure it would have been taken care of. 

Good dealer or bad these guys see so many boats in a very short period of time it's definitely not a bad idea to double check the easy stuff.     I'm reminded of the thread were guy "sank" his boat in the drive way. 

[Rednucleus]

So yours did better than my Sanger's at 200 hours

[Bigstic]

8 hours ago, Bill_AirJunky said:

Sounds like awesome dealers.  

I will report back about my dealer after this week.  Taking the boat down to see if they can update my Malibu Speed control so I can set it to a speed under 11.8 mph.  Malibu claims it should work down into the 5 MPH range but even if you set the speed lower on mine the slowest it will hold is 11.8 mph which is just a little to fast on this boat for surfing.  Last summer the dealer said there was nothing they could do but I talked to Malibu this winter and they said that if the boat was never updated then that is where the problem is so we shall see.

And I would agree sales man told me it was gtg when I bought it but last fall after picking it up from getting winterized I asked the service guy about the impeller and he said that they only do impellers if specifically asked.  Hence why I replaced it this spring.  Typical service and sales that never talk to each other.

[Ndawg12]

10 hours ago, Bigstic said:

So I bought my boat middle of the season last year.  The dealer I got it from said it had been serviced and then this winter they winterized it and did some other service work.  Just yanked it out of storage and decided to put a new impeller in it.  Read some how to's and decided to try without a pulling tool.

First thing I notice.  The exhaust on my HH goes right in front of the housing.  Had to pull the exhaust to get access.  Was pretty simple.  Next thing I see is that all the 8mm bolts still had the factory paint on them.  Once I broke them lose the paint fell off.  That is 10 years on the original impeller but only 170 hours.  Used a pair of 90° needle noise pliers and a couple tugs and the impeller was out.  Was surprised to see moisture in the housing.  Even more surprised to see that roughly 60% of the fins on the impeller were beginning to tear.

Talk about lucking out.  Hoping to get it in the water next week.  This could have been a bad summer.

Beginning to tear but not missing any fins or partial fins?  You didn't mention doing it so I'll suggest that it's never a bad idea to look up in the tranny cooler and verify it's free of debris.  

[Bigstic]

4 hours ago, Ndawg12 said:

Beginning to tear but not missing any fins or partial fins?  You didn't mention doing it so I'll suggest that it's never a bad idea to look up in the tranny cooler and verify it's free of debris.  

Nothing missing.  The fins had about a half inch tear on the side closest to the engine.  Who knows how much longer it had.

[Eagle River Mike]

I just changed my water pump (outboard version of impellor) on my 60hp 4 stoke Yamaha that is on my pontoon.  It was the factory original and was 13 years old and had over 700 hours on it.  There wasn't much left of it and boat was barely pumping water at the end of last summer.  Sure wish that water pump was as easy to change as the impellor on my Malibu.  If it was, I sure wouldn't have waited so long.  

[RTS]

Always tell your dealer (or anyone else that works on your boat) that you want the old parts back.  Won't necessarily stop them from cheating you, but would at least make someone think twice.