Hi Peter,

Huh, I never thought that there might be a check valve in the pump to
prevent water from draining back into the tank, but it makes sense. A
stuck ball valve would give the symptoms I'm seeing. But this "Leisure
Components" pump appears to be a sealed unit, I don't think it's
repairable.

--
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

Peter T. Owsianowski typed:
> Installed a new GoWesty pump (the black one) on JoesVan and you can hear
> the water working it's way up to the faucet each time.  Has worked well
> for 2 years.  The old one had a funky ball valve that got stuck in the
> closed position.  Maybe yours is intermittantly getting  stuck.
>
> A little side story:  Got that old pump out and my brother was looking
> at it and said:  "It just seems clogged", so he blew really hard into
> the hose end not realizing the faucet end was pointing right at his
> eye.  We had been testing so it had water in and looked like a 3 Stooges
> episode as the water blew out and hit his right eye.  ...that was a
> really good laugh in a bus.
>
> by the way, did you remember to flush the tank with baking soda/
> bleach/water?
>
>
> On 2/25/07, *Michael Elliott* <camping.elliott@gmail.com
> <mailto:camping.elliott@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Mellow Yellow's sink pump gave out last summer. The motor and the
>     impeller were no longer on speaking terms so they went their separate
>     ways. I hear they are both doing well
>
>     The pumps were temporarily out of stock wherever I looked, so a fellow
>     listee loaned me a spare for a week. When the new pump arrived, I
>     installed it and it worked fine.
>
>     Last month I took a cruise up Highway 1 on the Pacific Coast
>     (California). I started with the water tank dry, no sense hauling water
>     before I need it, I feel, and when I got to Montana del Oro campground
>     near Morro Bay I put water in the tank. I would probably have filled it,
>     but the water supply there comes from large tanks that are filled
>     periodically by whoever's job it is to fill those tanks. They were all
>     pretty close to near empty so the water just trickled out of the hose in
>     a pitiful little steam. I waited as long as I could while water dribbled
>     into my water tank, but the flow was so slow that I didn't wait until
>     the red water level LED camp up. But I figured there was enough for the
>     pump to suck.
>
>     But it didn't. I could hear the pump motor whirring, but nothing came
>     from the faucet.
>
>     This had me a little concerned, but the next night, farther up the
>     coast, I filled the tank at a National Forest campground the the pump
>     pumped cheerfully thereafter. "Probably hadn't put enough water in the
>     first night," I decided.
>
>     Well, this weekend I struck out with a dry water tank again, and filled
>     it before I entered Joshua Tree National Park. This is desert camping
>     and there is no water anywhere nearby at all. Even if someone did drill
>     down to the water table, the water has too much radon to be healthful.
>     Lots of granite thereabouts.
>
>     After settling, I went to make a cup of coffee, and the pump did it
>     again: the motor whirred, but no faucet water. I popped the top off the
>     water tank, figuring that if worst came to worst I could just dip up
>     what I needed from the tank by hand. I wondered if there was an
>     obstruction in the water line, but the hose was too tight at the elbow
>     at the top of the tank for me to remove it without risking breaking
>     something, so I fished the pump up off the bottom and pulled it out of
>     the tank. I set it on its side and reached over to the faucet to turn on
>     the sink -- I wanted to watch to see if the impeller blade spun. It was
>     a stretch grabbing the faucet while keeping an eye on the pump. As soon
>     as I turned on the pump, water came out of the faucet.
>
>     <image here of chimpanzee dressed like human guy scratching head in
>     puzzlement>.
>
>     I dropped the pump back into the tank and it worked fine, without a
>     hiccup, for the remainder of the trip.
>
>     I can't recall who I bought the pump from - one of our usual online
>     vendors. It's not German. It is labeled "LEISURE PRODUCTS" and
>     "CERRITOS."
>
>     Pump shouldn't have to be primed, should it? I would think that having
>     it sit under a foot of water would do a right fine job of priming any
>     pump, unless it is trapping a bubble inside.
>
>     --
>     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
>
>
>
>
> --
> Pete
> '79 Westy "Aardvark"
> '87 Westy "Joe's Van"
> '02 Audi A6 Avant
> WWW. Busesbythebeach.com <http://Busesbythebeach.com>