Kohler 5E Genny Waterpump Leaking

Bucit

Bucit

New Member
Mar 12, 2010
3,144
St. Petersburg Florida
Boat Info
2005 280 Sundancer
2004 SPD-104 Achilles w/ 8hp Yamaha
Engines
Twin 4.3 MPI's with Alpha drives.
I have a Kohler 5E genny which last week quit pumping water. I replaced the impeller (which was intact but ripped) and put it back together with a new one. Now it's leaking from the bottom bolt, the one that you cannot fully remove. I took everything apart again and checked the metal cover plate for wear. It seemed Ok with no visible marks or anything you could feel. The O-Ring is in place as I double checked. Anything I'm missing? Could the hard thick plastic housing be cracked and I just can't see it?

Thanks!
 
If the O-ring is doing its job, water can't get to the bolt. So that leaves the case or the hose... I guess if the hose was leaking at the end and spraying on the bolt, it could be deceiving.
 
It's dripping from under the bolt so it's not the hose.
 
I just had mine apart a couple of weeks ago replacing the yellow rubber coupling. I am not sure I understand what you mean by "the bolt you cannot remove." Mine has 4 bolts that hold the impeller housing on and I always remove all of them to make it easier to get to the impeller. When I reinstalled the impeller housing, I too made sure the O-ring was intact and fully expected to have to replace it, but, no leaks....

Bennett
 
I had a mechanic looking at my Kohler 5E today because water flow was low. What he found out was that the cooling system was clogged with what look like calcium and silt. Also the fuel pump, injectors and Catalytic something something need to be cleaned... This one is going to be expensive. The genny sat for way too long without enough use from original purchase until I purchased. DAMMIT. This is an expensive fix... And Kohler prices are ridiculous.... I hate Kohler.
 
bbwhitejr said:
I am not sure I understand what you mean by "the bolt you cannot remove.
Click to expand...

In this vintage 280, the pump side of the genny is right up against the holding tank. Depending on the exact spot the genny and holding tank were bolted down, this sometimes creates a situation where you can't get one of the pump bolts to unscrew all the way. My 280 was tight but you could get all the bolts out of the genny pump. If either the genny or tank would have been 1/8" closer to each other, it would have prevented bolts from being removed.
 
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Only 2 of my bolts will come out on my 280, which means the whole pump and the hoses have to come off. 2 small allen head bolts hold the pump to the genny. Once off you'll see the ceramic seals between the pump halves
 
Yes the lower bolt sits right by the holding tank. It will unscrew and you can slide it almost all the way out but then hits the holding tank. It's ok though since it holds the cover and you can still get to the impeller. I'll take it off tonight and see what I find. I didn't know the pump has ceramic seals? Should I be able to get them locally or is this a part I would need to order from Kohler?
 
Took a couple of calls to find it, but think this is it
Sherwood hypro corp. 800-854-3218 ext. 2
Pump is a g8001
seal kit is 23459

Maybe look on line as well. Good luck with those 2 allen metric screws, think it was size 6
 
jason78 said:
In this vintage 280, the pump side of the genny is right up against the holding tank. Depending on the exact spot the genny and holding tank were bolted down, this sometimes creates a situation where you can't get one of the pump bolts to unscrew all the way. My 280 was tight but you could get all the bolts out of the genny pump. If either the genny or tank would have been 1/8" closer to each other, it would have prevented bolts from being removed.
Click to expand...

Got it! Thank you!

Bennett
 
Not meaning to hijack Bucit's thread, how do I get to the flame arrester on my 5ecd? Is it a matter of removing all of the screws on the end of the unit opposite the impeller? There must be 20 screws.

Thanks,
Bennett
 
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scoflaw said:
Took a couple of calls to find it, but think this is it
Sherwood hypro corp. 800-854-3218 ext. 2
Pump is a g8001
seal kit is 23459

Maybe look on line as well. Good luck with those 2 allen metric screws, think it was size 6
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I called our local Kohler shop and he said those do fail quite often and has them in stock. Told me to pull it and bring it to him. He'll take care of it in minutes. I'll let you know for sure if this is the problem.

Thanks!

Perry
 
To wrap this thread up I took the whole water pump assembly into the shop this morning. The guy said right away it was the ceramic seal assembly. The parts were like $56 but I also needed to get another impeller and sleeve for back-up so it would have been around $100. He showed me a new water pump assembly that Kohler now uses (made out of brass) and it was like $160 (which included an impeller). So for $190 I got a new pump assembly, will keep my other impeller for a back up along with a new sleeve as an extra. Will install tonight and be done with it.
 
I had the same issue and just replaced the whole pump assembly and the leak was solved.
 
I wanted to re-open this thread due to my latest issue. This all started when my genny stopped pumping water. The boat is kept on a lift and out of the water. I replaced the impeller and the system primed, water flow was good but the pump starting dripping water. The ceramic seal assembly was the culprit so I bought a new bronze Kohler pump with brand new impeller. Here's my latest issue.

Installed new pump, lowered boat in the water and made sure the strainer was clean and the seacock was open. Started genny and no water flow. Check to make sure seacock was open. Removed hose from the output side of strainer and water came pouring into bilge. Started again, no flow. Removed the cover of the new pump to see if there actually was an impeller in it to find all 5 fins were ripped off. At that point I took off more hoses to back flush just to make sure there were no restrictions (please remember that I originally changed the impeller on the old pump and had great water flow. Pump leaked so I shut it off and raised the boat on the lift so no way I could have a restriction).

I installed the impeller (which was my spare) from the old water pump into the new pump and put everything back together. Started genny, no water flow. After numerous attempts I found that impeller two's fins were torn off the impeller.

My question is, has anyone ever encountered a bad pump? There's nothing to these things so not sure what could be bad. All I know is I'm down 2 impellers and still no water flow.

Thanks for your help.
 
Not sure why you just didn't reseal your old pump. Sure you didn't want to hear that. My pump is half brass, half steel.
 
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