Problem With Whale Foot Pumps

[HopCar]

That’s basically an excellent pump. They’ve been making it for about fifty years. I wonder if you couldn’t just replace the pin with a cotter pin or a Clevis pin held in place with a cotter pin or ring?

[Sailormantx]

Take apart the pump and glue the pin into the lever with epoxy or gorilla glue. I have three of these on my boat, only one had this problem. It's been four years of daily use since I had to glue the pin in place and it has yet to work it's way out again.

[dfelsent]

Thank you for the heads up. I have 4 from 1972 and they all still work. I’ll inspect though for sure.

[Sailing Drummer]

The pin started coming out again. In my setup it's really hard to remove the pump to get to the pin. But, I fixed it, again. If it goes too far it could leak. That's what happened to my other new one. They probably figured out a way to save a few pennies making them! Great pump when they work.

[Daniel Grant]

I find this very interesting as I noted before I have not experienced any difficulty with my 2 pumps. I wonder if they have farmed out the manufacture of their pumps since I purchased mine some years ago. Not having one in front of me as a reference I wonder if you could drill a hole n each end of the pin or use a slightly longer pin and drill a hole in each end and put a piece of wire or carter key in the holes to prevent them sliding out.

[Sailing Drummer]

On my pumps (fairly new) the pin is indented just a little on each end. A longer pin with wire would be a tremendous improvement. But since the pin's diameter is so small it would most likely have to be done by a machine shop or that way from Whale. There's no way I could do that living on the boat. Even with my old drill press when I had a house I probably couldn't do that.

[Sailing Drummer]

Update - I got tired of pulling the pump often and fixing it. I came up with a solution (I hope). I added a plate over the pin on the side where it always comes out. Sloppy work but who cares!

[ATTACH]192798

[model 10]

One end of the pin has a serration that jambs in the pump housing. The hole in the pump gets worn and the pin falls out. Take a hammer and a center punch and dimple the end of the pin again.

[Sailing Drummer]

On my old ones they never got worn and loose. The new ones do. Something changed!

[Capt.Don]

Originally Posted by malbert73

Mine started leaking this summer and siphoned my whole water tank into the bilge. Need to figure out and I’m wondering if anybody had same issue?

I had the same problem. I'm debating between rebuilding vs. buying a replacement.
Don

[Fishbone 1]

I had a Whale double action foot pump that needed a rebuild...Kit cost $38.00 US searched Amazon and found an Identicle pump made in us. Don't remember the brand name new pump $42.00 exact duplicate of $102.00 Whale. went with the 42 dollar pump works great!!

[dfelsent]

Originally Posted by dfelsent

Thank you for the heads up. I have 4 from 1972 and they all still work. I’ll inspect though for sure.

Update!
I had a diaphragm fail on one and replaced the pump. Now I’ll have to check the pin!

[Minggat]

After a few too many problems and consuming spares, one more failure led me to why my bilge pumps were so busy and why we were going through so much water.

Both pumps had been leaking for a long time.

Bottom line, I found some 12 volt tiny aquarium or decorative fountain pumps that were $12 for 2 of them. Also bought 2 momentary buttons to go where the levers use to go. Another $11 for 2 of those.

$6 for 2 plastic check valves.

4 months, no issues.

These little pumps often run 24/7 for years! Extremely quiet.