SeaWater Pump: NorthernLights OEM vs. JMP Marine Aftermarket

[Pitou]

I just wanted to throw out a Buyer Beware Alert (and shame on me).

After 12 seasons and 680 plus hours at the end of the 2017 season my Northern Lights raw water pump seal failed and seawater started spraying. Spring of 2018 this old Scottish Yankee decided to try an aftermarket pump produced overseas by JMP Marine out of Miami, Fl, USA. As the list and counter price from my local dealer for a NL-#25-12007 OEM pump was $695, I "Scored" the JMP pump through Amazon Prime for $235.00.

Guess what, you get what you pay for. Funny thing is that I "never" take the low road.
Not only is the impeller practically impossible to service on the JMP without removing the drive gear and shaft, but the seal just went after 14 months and 50 hours of use and I lose .. 12 month warranty is up! Lesson learned/reinforced: Buy Quality Parts.

Still not wanting to pay close to $700 bucks for a replacement pump, wanting OEM and that I haven't gotten around to rebuuilding the old NL OEM pump a quick Google search hooked me up with Diesel Parts Direct a NL dealer out of Baton Rouge, LA, USA at 4pm CST last Thursday and Becky had one out to me overnight for $472 bucks including overnight air. I had it on my doorstep Friday morning at 10am EST. Swapped out the drive gear, painted it up and had it on the generator by 4 PM that same day for a 23 hour turnaround from the time of noted failure and order.

The only reason that I caught the leak so quickly was that I was doing a raw water hose and exhaust hose replacement preventative hose swap out of the original 2006 hoses and I fired up the generator to check my work for leaks and low and behold the raw water pump was spraying sea water through it's seal. What a let down after doing all of the PM hose work. As an aside .. next season it's time to replace the exhaust elbow (which is now made in stainless) and a heat exchanger service.

[jleonard]

Thank you for the reminder.
I know I always cringe when I need a part for my Westerbeke generator.
Last year it was a $400 coolant circulating pump. But I buy from Westerbeke because the parts are excellent quality.
The pump had such a nice paint job I wanted to wax it before I installed it (but I resisted).