Jeez this one was painful. In another post I mentioned that my 4 month old MP40 suddenly seized up and fell off the tank.
I cleaned the pump down with Citric Acid and the pump worked but had a really bad vibration. I pulled down the wetside again and inspected it and found nothing wrong that I could see.
I then found a post on the disassembly of the Wetside unit and realized that the white ceramic shaft is not supposed to be stuck in the prop (sorry but I had the older version MP40s so was unfamiliar with the setup). Mine was actually rotating on the metal shaft. I had to carefully tap out the white ceramic shaft from the prop and then I re-soaked it again and everything was fine for a few days but then a lesser vibration started to happen. In the meantime I had ordered a new wetside and had it sitting down so I decided to pull both of them apart to see the differences.
What I found was that my white ceramic shaft was spinning in both the black ceramic sleeve on the Prop and it could also spin on the metal shaft. On the new head the white shaft was literally glued to the metal shaft so that only the Ceramic parts could spin. I used some plumbers tape and wound two tight layers on the metal shaft and tapped the white ceramic shaft down and it fit in nice and tight. I had also noticed that the new Head had a generous blob of what looks like silicone grease on the back quarter sized disks where the Prop back pushes down onto the base. I figured that the grease could not be all that important because it would never last through a typical cleaning and these things are meant to be cleaned right.
I put the head back together and most of the vibration was now gone but there is still an annoying bit of it left, just enough that you can hear the pump vibrating slightly from 5 feet away. So I pull the wetside out again and put some Silicone Grease on the Disk and wow what a difference, the pump is absolutely silent again.
I have never had this kind of issue with the older MP40s and I have never had to use grease on them. While I do recognize this is a quieter design with more power it is kind of disappointing that only 4 months in I have had a problem like this.
I am tempted to send the wetside back under warranty but I have a lot of time left so I will let it run for some more time and see if any problems come back.
The main point of this post is that if after you clean your Wetside you find that your White Ceramic Shaft is no longer bonded to the metal shaft your going to have issues. The second one is that the grease at the bottom is very important. I am wondering if Ecotech sells the original grease as it does come off after a proper soak in citric acid.
Hope this help someone because the vibrations these pumps can produce when they are not working right is really annoying.
I cleaned the pump down with Citric Acid and the pump worked but had a really bad vibration. I pulled down the wetside again and inspected it and found nothing wrong that I could see.
I then found a post on the disassembly of the Wetside unit and realized that the white ceramic shaft is not supposed to be stuck in the prop (sorry but I had the older version MP40s so was unfamiliar with the setup). Mine was actually rotating on the metal shaft. I had to carefully tap out the white ceramic shaft from the prop and then I re-soaked it again and everything was fine for a few days but then a lesser vibration started to happen. In the meantime I had ordered a new wetside and had it sitting down so I decided to pull both of them apart to see the differences.
What I found was that my white ceramic shaft was spinning in both the black ceramic sleeve on the Prop and it could also spin on the metal shaft. On the new head the white shaft was literally glued to the metal shaft so that only the Ceramic parts could spin. I used some plumbers tape and wound two tight layers on the metal shaft and tapped the white ceramic shaft down and it fit in nice and tight. I had also noticed that the new Head had a generous blob of what looks like silicone grease on the back quarter sized disks where the Prop back pushes down onto the base. I figured that the grease could not be all that important because it would never last through a typical cleaning and these things are meant to be cleaned right.
I put the head back together and most of the vibration was now gone but there is still an annoying bit of it left, just enough that you can hear the pump vibrating slightly from 5 feet away. So I pull the wetside out again and put some Silicone Grease on the Disk and wow what a difference, the pump is absolutely silent again.
I have never had this kind of issue with the older MP40s and I have never had to use grease on them. While I do recognize this is a quieter design with more power it is kind of disappointing that only 4 months in I have had a problem like this.
I am tempted to send the wetside back under warranty but I have a lot of time left so I will let it run for some more time and see if any problems come back.
The main point of this post is that if after you clean your Wetside you find that your White Ceramic Shaft is no longer bonded to the metal shaft your going to have issues. The second one is that the grease at the bottom is very important. I am wondering if Ecotech sells the original grease as it does come off after a proper soak in citric acid.
Hope this help someone because the vibrations these pumps can produce when they are not working right is really annoying.
