Could this be a broken seal?

[sunbyrned]

I sucked up something yesterday. Finally spit it out but she still vibrates, (a small amount of grinding vibration at the beginning but quickly goes away and a metallic rattle appears at higher rpms) revs up but not a lot of power, water is flowing. I dismantled the pump and the shaft and blades look good. Spins okay. Wear ring has some marks on it but not any burn marks and doesn't appear to be swollen.(see pic) I did notice however a little piece of something broken off and sticking up inside the hole for the shaft. (see pic) It is flexible. Is this a seal or something that I should be concerned about? Also, I noticed a little bit of water at the intermediate bearing but not much and some on these forums have said to just wipe that up and enjoy your day.(see pic) I'm going to trouble shoot today but wanted to start here. I searched the forum pretty thoroughly before posting. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[tdonoughue]

Might want to try posting those pics again.

Yes, there should be nothing broken off sticking up. That is most likely the issue. But the pic of it will help diagnose properly.

 

[sunbyrned]

Thanks @tdonoughue ! I actually removed the post and pics because after posting, I saw some other folks that had far worse issues than mine, so thought I would just keep trouble shooting on my own. Here are the original pics though. After everything dried out this morning I could see that whatever that was sticking up was not part of a broken seal. I just reassembled everything and am waiting for the damn rain to stop again and find a place with no debris to try things out again.

 

[tdonoughue]

Oh, we can multi-task. There are lots of us. And then, when you get done with this little problem, you will be one, too, and will pay it forward, thus adding to the numbers...

Looks like you have a little chunk off your nylon piece, but that should not affect much.

I would not worry on your water invasion. Yes, your seal is probably blown. Someday you may replace it, but that is a VERY big job and if all it is doing is dribbling a little, conventional wisdom is to leave and watch (as you noted).

Wear ring shows some scraping, but not too bad.

In most of these cases, you reassemble and whatever little itty bitty thing was causing a problem dropped out when you were disassembling (unnoticed) and when you put it back together it magically works fine. I would try that next.

 

[swatski]

Thanks @tdonoughue ! I actually removed the post and pics because after posting, I saw some other folks that had far worse issues than mine, so thought I would just keep trouble shooting on my own. Here are the original pics though. After everything dried out this morning I could see that whatever that was sticking up was not part of a broken seal. I just reassembled everything and am waiting for the damn rain to stop again and find a place with no debris to try things out again.

Chances are if you cleared everything out nicely your vibration issue may be gone!

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[sunbyrned]

Thanks guys! I'm hoping it all works great. I didn't see any debris when I took the impeller out. @tdonoughue , I think what you're seeing is silicone on one of the screws rather than broken off plastic. I also saw a pic of another guy who's seal did break and grease was basically filling the cavity. I'm not seeing that at all in mine thankfully.

 

[sunbyrned]

Just an update. I took it out this morning and it runs like a charm. Yay!

 

[swatski]

Just an update. I took it out this morning and it runs like a charm. Yay!

Awesome!!

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[sunbyrned]

Thanks everyone!