Trouble getting water to the Sea water pump.

[Dave-R]

I'm working on a 2001 volvo penta 4.3 GL with the engine mount sea water pump. I just bought a new set of muffs, but when using them I hardly get any water flow to the pump. I took the suction line off and attached a hose to it and blew it back out the outdrive. And did manage to get water flow backwards . Is there any chance the power steering cooler could be partially plugged? I then placed another clamp over the muffs to make them seal tighter and finally got a little flow to the sea water pump. I have done this a hundred different times to many Volvo drives and never once had this problem. It acts as if there is a restriction coming from the outdrive to the sea water pump. Any Ideas? I really back flushed for a couple minutes when
I did flush it. Maybe I will pull the cooler and check it out. I did have a new impeller installed, I might have to pull that to see if was damaged also. Ant help will be appreciated .

 

[BRICH1260]

Your pump is probably pulling in air due to not a good O ring seal. Take the front pump housing off and double check the O ring making sure that it is in the right position or that there are not two seals on it.

 

[Dave-R]

Even with the suction hose removed, I could not get hardly any water to come out the hose when using the muffs. Then I made a good adapter from the pump suction hose and did get flow backwards to the outdrive. I had to put extra clamp pressure on the muffs when I tried again to operate normally. I was able to operate the engine okay , but I feel there is a restriction somewhere . Worst place to get to is the power steering cooler, that's my guess. I can't imagine why the muffs are having such a hard time getting water to the pump suction. When I get the cooler off I will flush towards the out drive . Thanks Brich 1260 for the suggestion. Dave-R