Last year, while in Bonaire, I noticed that the output from the water maker was about half of normal. After contacting the manufacturer – Spectra in California via email I was able to follow their troubleshooting advice and determine that my Bodine Feed Pump needed to be repaired.

While in Seattle last summer I purchased a new Bodine Feed Pump with the idea I would have the old one rebuilt and use it as a spare. I picked up the pump and some other parts from Emerald Harbor Marine at the Elliot Bay Marina.

Happily I set about removing the Feed Pump Module from the bulkhead so I could swap out pumps. The module is the black pump, the white cover with Spectra on it and the controller in the smaller white box with the switch. I then separated the controller from the cover so I could take the module into the cockpit for the rest of the work.

Things were going great. I got the old pump off and was ready to install the new pump when I discovered that my new pump did not have the drive magnet. This particular Bodine MagPump depends on a large magnet at the end of the drive shaft to spin the impeller at the base of the pump. No magnet, no water pumping. I tried to remove the old magnet from the pump and even had Jack in the machine shop try to drill out the Allen screw holding it in place – no luck the magnet would not come off. Jack also inspected the pump and cleaned the interior. He was of the opinion that the pump was fine. So I re-installed the old pump and did a feed pump flow check. It is supposed to pump 2.3 gallons of seawater a minute through the system. The old one wasn’t even close.

I informed Emerald Harbor of the situation and they agreed to ship a new magnet at no cost. On Good Friday I asked for a Tracking number for my shipment. So sorry, but Spectra is closed so we will get the tracking number from them on Monday. On Monday I received the Tracking Number. I was very surprised to see that the new Magnet left Seattle on that some Monday.

Eventually the new magnet arrived. Out with the old, in with the new (another day of labor). The new pump is pumping just over 2 gallons, but sounds like it still has air in the lines. In a few days we will go to cleaner water and test the water output. This one day project took almost 3 weeks.