Hardin stainless Raw water pump reviews ?

I switched over to the stainless pump this season on my starboard motor. So far so good! It pumps slightly less than my port engine at idle and slightly less at 3400 rpm. Both engine temperatures run the same.
 
Did the port about 80 hours ago, stbd this spring. No issues.
 
Replaced both OEM pumps with these three years ago and have had zero issues.

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This is the beginning of season #3 for mine. I had a decent amount of scoring on both wear plates, so I installed the basic rebuild kit this year. Sure was a nice feeling getting a "brand new" pump for only $70 (which was only $35 per season). They are nice pumps. I highly recommend them.

Just an fyi for the folks on the Upper Chesapeake, Weaver's Marine on Back River stocks the pumps and the rebuild kits at the same prices you see online.
 
Sounds good to me. I'm going to order 2 in the fall... Thanks
 
Well, I loved these pumps until I just had bearings fail at 152hrs of use. I was getting some leaking from behind the pulley, I just pulled the pump and the bearings are shot. Someone just posted a comment on the Hardin website that they had early bearing failure and there was someone else here on CSR that commented in a different thread about the Hardin pumps that they were a dealer for Hardin and had some problems with bearing failure on their customers boats. I will be calling them on Monday to see if they will take this pump back and rebuild it for me. I am not impressed with frailure at 152hrs. My merc pumps had over 300hrs on them when I replaced them with the Hardin pumps and they were still working.
 
Just installed one on my port motor this year, well built , so far, so good
 
I wonder if the bearing failures are related to how the pulley was installed? To the folks that have had bearing failures - did you install your own pulley, or did you buy it with one already installed? I installed mine myself but I have a small hydraulic press and I made sure that I was supporting the opposite end of the shaft while pressing the pulley on so I wasn't putting pressure on the bearings. There is a tiny bit of clearance between the back of the shaft and the back wear plate so if you set the housing on the bottom plate of the press and put the pulley on, it will put pressure on the bearings. Check out this video from the Hardin site at about the 14 minute mark to see what I am talking about.

I need to take a look at mine this week because my serpentine belt has shifted a little and is starting to throw rubber dust into my bilge. Something has moved or is going bad. I'm hoping it is an idler pulley (I have 2), but the Hardin pump may be the cause. I'll report back if it is. Hardin has a deluxe rebuild kit that includes replacement bearings. So I'll do the rebuild with the deluxe kit if it is.
 
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I'm still running good. Put around 11 hrs on them at 3500rpm. Working perfect. If you press the pulley on it shouldn't put ANY stress on the bearing.
 
I used a pulley press threaded into the pump shaft, no stress put on the bearings with that. When I called Hardin they said the same thing, I must have put pressure on the bearings putting on the pulley. I have sent the pump to Hardin, they are going to evaluate it and let me know what they are going to do. They said that "they don't get back any pumps that they sell with the pulleys installed, only the ones that they sell without the pulleys do they have bearing issues". I wish they told me that when I bought them. I would have bought the ones with the pulley.
 
Recently changed to Hardin pumps. I installed the back 1/2 on my port engine first, spring of 2016, then my impeller went out on my stbrd last fall 2016 installed back 1/2 on it. Then this past weekend I installed a whole pump on my port because the old mercruiser front 1/2 was leaking out of weep-hole. Now I just read all of these post and am wondering about the bearings on the Hardin pumps do they use cheap china bearings and seals or something ?? Kinda worried now ? B.B.
 
After going back and reading all the posts again and watching the video wondering if some of the bearings maybe got damaged when pressing on the pulleys ??
 
Jeremygavin said:
I used a pulley press threaded into the pump shaft, no stress put on the bearings with that. When I called Hardin they said the same thing, I must have put pressure on the bearings putting on the pulley. I have sent the pump to Hardin, they are going to evaluate it and let me know what they are going to do. They said that "they don't get back any pumps that they sell with the pulleys installed, only the ones that they sell without the pulleys do they have bearing issues". I wish they told me that when I bought them. I would have bought the ones with the pulley.
Click to expand...

Hmm, Same pump, same bearing, Higher cost with pulley. That's why they said they never get one with the pulley back. More money for them. I hope nobody is installing there pulley with a press:smt101.
 
mnm99 said:
Hmm, Same pump, same bearing, Higher cost with pulley. That's why they said they never get one with the pulley back. More money for them. I hope nobody is installing there pulley with a press:smt101.
Click to expand...

I installed mine with a press. I put a small block of metal on the base of the press and made sure that only the impeller end of the shaft was supported. When I pressed the pulley on, all of the pressure was on the shaft and not on the housing or bearings.
 
Update on my Hardin sea water pump situation, now the bearings on the Hardin pump on my starboard motor failed yesterday. It is crazy that both pumps failed within a week of one another. I have changed a lot of water pumps and a lot of pulleys on other types of pumps and have never had a problem like this so I am not sure how I did anything incorrectly but anything is possible. The good news is Hardin is standing behind their product and sending me a new unit to replace the pump that went last week and will do the same with the one that went yesterday once they receive it back. I decided to pay the extra $75 and have them put the pulley on it, he said that the failure rate is very low when they put their pulleys on it. If it saves me from going through this again then it is worth the upgrade.
 
skibum said:
I wonder if the bearing failures are related to how the pulley was installed? To the folks that have had bearing failures - did you install your own pulley, or did you buy it with one already installed? I installed mine myself but I have a small hydraulic press and I made sure that I was supporting the opposite end of the shaft while pressing the pulley on so I wasn't putting pressure on the bearings. There is a tiny bit of clearance between the back of the shaft and the back wear plate so if you set the housing on the bottom plate of the press and put the pulley on, it will put pressure on the bearings. Check out this video from the Hardin site at about the 14 minute mark to see what I am talking about.

I need to take a look at mine this week because my serpentine belt has shifted a little and is starting to throw rubber dust into my bilge. Something has moved or is going bad. I'm hoping it is an idler pulley (I have 2), but the Hardin pump may be the cause. I'll report back if it is. Hardin has a deluxe rebuild kit that includes replacement bearings. So I'll do the rebuild with the deluxe kit if it is.
Click to expand...

Both. Same result.
 
I wanted to comment on this post and provide an update on Hardin pumps. I had a Mercruiser pump fail (10 years old) and decided to go with a Hardin Pump in 2015. When I saw this post in July I went to my boat and inspected my pump to make sure there were no issues. The pump looked perfect and I thought that the bearing failures noted were either caused by how the pulley was installed or maybe a small percentage of bearing failures.

My Hardin pump just failed on me (leaking at the bearings). I had purchased the pump with their pulley so it's not how the pulley was put on but a premature failure with the bearings/seal. The boat has approximately 60 hours since the pump replacement. I did contact Hardin and they are going to warranty the pump but I have to return it to them for inspection and rebuild. Needless to say I'm not going to install it back in the boat and for those of you who have these pumps, I would keep a close eye on them.
 
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