Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:13:43 -0800
Reply-To: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Priming the friggin' sink pump
In-Reply-To: <a0c5584b7aaf83e893b63c534cc7282a@comcast.net>
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Hi Keith,
I could not agree more. The pump was under water -- water pressure alone
should have filled the pump so it should have been primed. It may have a
check valve in it, I don't know, but maybe such a thing is normally
incorporated to prevent water from draining back into the tank. If there
is a check valve, then that is a possible cause for the symptoms. A
kinked hose is possible, I suspect, but I could not test that theory on
the road because the hose is so firmly attached to the barbed fitting on
the tank that I chose not to try to force it off, or cut it in case of
difficulty reattaching it. If there is a kink, it is a fully-binary one:
full kink or zero kink. I don't know of any kinks like that, which
self-heal, but you never know. The faucet -- well, if the turning of the
knob causes the pump to audibly whine, but no water comes out, then is
there something else the faucet should be doing that it might not be
doing? Again, it's an all-or-nothing situation. I'm going to try Flo's
suggestion next time, and suck on the faucet and see if that gets
things, uh, flowing.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR
Keith Ovregaard typed:
> I just thought I would chime in here because it seems like there's
> something else wrong besides the pump. Think about it. Assuming you
> have water in the tank, the pump will already be primed because it is
> under water and sort of self-primes. If I were you I'd be checking
> other possibilities like a kinked hose or a bad faucet valve. An inline
> pump is another story, especially if mounted higher than the water
> level. FYI I have had 3 pumps in 2 westies and never had a priming
> problem. A dead pump, yes, but never an issue of getting water out of
> the faucet even when the tank was refilled after sitting dry for
> months. And when the water runs out, the pumps tries to gulp every last
> drop!
>
> Good luck
>
> Keith O
>
>
> On Feb 26, 2007, at 7:20 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>
>> Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:27:30 -0800
>> From: Florian Speier <groups.florian@GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Re: Priming the friggin' sink pump
>>
>> my 87 westy "features" a non stock inline pump that some p.o. put in.
>> obviously the same problem, as the pump cannot pump air. after
>> scratching my
>> head how to get water to the pump, i just put my mouth over the faucet
>> and
>> sucked the first bit of water through...... works perfectly every time
>> now
>> that i run it dry.
>> flo
>
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