Simms pump drain plug

You guessed it, some ham fisted clod in the past used the wrong bolt and washer then gorilla tightened the dang thing in to stop the leak.

Long story short. JB welded a 1/4" barb fitting into the hole and screwed a 1/4 turn valve onto that. Viola! Problem solved but I will be keeping a close eye on it from now on.

Curious if anyone else has had to improvise a fix like this?

Bob

I don't know what the inside of the pump looks like specifically if thre is any space around the plug area. Anyone have a manual that shows that?

That said my first thought would be to tap the hole with a slightly larger thread and use a suitable plug,bolt whatever.

JB weld may or may not be permanent depending on how clean the material is and how much vibration it sees.

What is a simms pump? Definitely a jerry rig repair. Someone down the line will be asking what Moron made this repair? Just saying.

I did the JB Weld routine for the same reason. The Simms holds 14oz of oil. I no longer use the overflow plug on the side. I drain into a clear bottle and check for diesel smell and amount, then just add 14 oz back in. It does take about 15 minutes for all the oil to drain out. I also have a vent drilled in the fill plug. This setup is a necessity for me as there is no clearance on that side of the engine to see the bottom of the Simms.

Drilling and tapping for a larger plug will only extend the problem. By adding the valve it will never be an issue again. I have also added a drain tube for ease of changing.

Since Ebbtide has complete records from date of purchase I have noted this modification in the logs. I also know which company did the last oil change and did not note the stripped bolt. Another reason to do your own maintenance!

Bob Cofer said:

Drilling and tapping for a larger plug will only extend the problem. By adding the valve it will never be an issue again. I have also added a drain tube for ease of changing.
!

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A larger plug will extend the life by another 30 years.
Or use the parger size to add a valve if that's your pleasure.
My point was JB weld is not necessarily permanent.

I replaced a stripped drain plug by tapping in a brass not fitting and valve. This works very well of me. I check the valve each morning to make sure it is not loose. I was a VERY careful on tapping to not go so deep that I left pieces of tapped aluminum in the pump. I also flushed the pump a few times with oil to remove anything that might have gotten past my observations. So far I have run the boat 30 hours and no issues. I did change the oil once after I moved the boat to a new Marina and the valve works great.

Do yourselves a favour - Safety Wire / Lockwire

Xsbank,

Good idea. I will do that today!

I was ready to put a valve in the simms pump on the starboard engine since it was nearly impossible to get to. It seemed prudent to try and get to the plug and drain the pump first since I had to do it anyway to replace the plug. My ribs still hurt and the strain in my leg getting into position is feeling better. That said, I decided not to put a valve in. I used the cut-off water bottle method with a larger cup to drain into. If I change the pump oil every 50 hours/400 miles, I'll probably have to do this 10 more times over the next 10 years. Decidied it's not worth the risk to modify the pump housing or epoxy a valve in.

Our trips generally take us out an average of 4-600 hours a year so we end up changing the pump oil quit a lot which is one of the reasons I decided to install a valve. Plus the PO had stripped the drain plug and is needed fixing anyway. Of course it was the starboard engine that needed it and the yoga contortions required to get there are interesting. Glad that part is done. Now the next job is to replace the water pumps with Johnson's in the near future.

For those who haven't done Keith's mod, Ziplock!

My drain hole on the port engine was also stripped. My solution was to wrap a generous amount of Teflon thread tape around the plug. Seems to have worked for about 200 hours now. I renew the Teflon tape every time I change the pump oil.

Captain K, you are extremely high-risk for getting remnants of the tape inside your pump, which will probably block it or damage it, in either case requiring a dismantling and rebuild. You should only use yellow teflon in a fuel system and never downstream of your final stage filter.

If that plug falls out, so will all the lube oil, the Simms will be fatally damaged and your engine will not run.

these units will not self distruck if the oil runs out. Mine fell out and I ran 100 hours until I discovred it. There thousands of these used in farm tracors that probably never got changed. check out some of their websites when you have a chance.