thru hull pump questions

First I would like to say thanks to all you guys for the tips and tricks I have borrowed over the last couple of months lurking int he shadows.

I bought and modified a little alumacraft 1436 this winter. Its been a fun project. I finally got it on the water this weekend and everything went fairly well except for this stupid atwood a500 pump that had been connected thru the hull of the boat when I bought it. I assume it was supposed to fill the removable live well, it doesn't work, and I don't use the live well so who knows really. Anyways the point being it leaks. its not a real bad leak, probably took on a gallon of water in about 5 hours. but still it leaks, and I need to remedy it. I am trying to find the simplest way to eliminate the problem. I do no need the motor, and as I mentioned it doesn't work anyways, but I would like to get it out of the way some, and get the hole plugged or covered. does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to do this?

I appreciate any suggestions.

i don't know what size hole those things make in the side of the boat... but perhaps you could remove the entire attwood apparatus and install a normal bulkhead with a plug.



i did this at the bottom of a 200 gallon aquarium 10 years ago, it's never leaked.

hmm, it actually looks like one of those on the outside of the boat. I will definitely look into that.

I gotta say I don't totally understand how the stupid thing is connected and I have been afraid to mess with it. I don't want to make it worse. maybe I need to look closer tomorrow.

There are a few options.....you could remove the thru-hull and have someone weld the hole shut..sand,prime,paint and your done. or you could do as the above poster stated and buy a new thur-hull and plug with drian plug. If you install a new thur-hull you could also add a ball valve and have a water intake source for future live-well, if you choose. The part that is attached to the inside of the transom should be threaded on the existing thru-hull and should screw off if the PO did not 5200 it on. Plastic thru-hulls are cheap, so as a last resort break it off and replace with new thru-hull and drain plug. From the pic it looks like that pump was installed a bit high to me.

NaturalLaw said:

i don't know what size hole those things make in the side of the boat... but perhaps you could remove the entire attwood apparatus and install a normal bulkhead with a plug.

i did this at the bottom of a 200 gallon aquarium 10 years ago, it's never leaked.

Click to expand...

I have a little experience w/ those bulkheads, I have the bottom of my current saltwater tank drilled and helped setup a friends tank that is 120 gallon, so like Natural said his 200 gallon and my buddies have some weight to it...

If you try it, make sure the gasket is exterior facing, set it well before you tighten it down. If you search around on google there is a calculator that helps determine the amount of tension across an area people use on my saltwater aquarium forums to determine what glass to use. It may help out on on your boat boat but probably not...

I also have 4 large bulkheads on my 265 gallon salt water reef tank, and have had no problem with them on this tank or any of my previous tanks either. they should work fine.

I had time to try to remove the dumb thing today, it wont budge. It looks like it is threaded on but it must have some epoxy or something on it. I think the bulkhead thing will work really well, but I will have to bust that thing up to get it out and find out what size the hole really is.

So where can I get one of these beasties? I've got the same issue and would just like to blank it off.

thanks

they should have them in the plumbing section of a hardware store. if you can't find them there, you might have better luck with a specialty aquarium store. if not there's always Amazon.

They are usually standard pipe thread so you can just buy a pvc threaded plug, teflon tape it and screw it in.

I looked around our lowes this weekend, and couldn't find any thing that looked like what I needed. Is there something else they are called or do I need to go to more of a hardware store?

I may just break over and buy from amazon, just trying to get it local.