Head hand pump

[Dick Turner]

Enjoyed a hot 4th here in New Bern, NC. All was well until my head hand pump cylinder cracked. Does anyone have info as to where I might find/purchase a new Groco Model HF hand toilet pump assembly? Thanks in advance.

[Joe Myerson]

Dick,

Happy Fourth of July!

Mine cracked two seasons ago--and I ordered one from Defender. It wasn't cheap, but they stock it. I think West Marine also carries 'em.

Good luck.

--Joe

[Dick Kobayashi]

I faced a similar problem a few years ago. I found that there wasn't all that much difference between the cylinder and the whole head. So I bought the whole head. So it was just a bolt on job when I got to the boat. Form the simplification of the task was worth it.

[Joe Myerson]

Dick is probably right.

It was one royal PITA to replace the pump, because I first had to pull the entire head (bolts frozen after nearly 30 years, etc.

And, opening up the innards of the head pump was not fun at all.

A total marine-head transplant is probably called for here.

--Joe

[Steve Laume]

I'll third that. I was looking into rebuilding my marine head a few years ago. After calling Groco I found that there are some differences in the old and new models. One thing the rep told me was to look very carefully at the base. The old ones were plastic. They tend to crack there as well after twenty or so odd years.

You could definitely buy a complete new head for less than it would cost you for the pump and a rebuild kit. If you are going as far as replacing the pump, you would want to rebuild the rest of the thing. Throw in a new seat along with a bright and shinny bowl and it is very easy to justify not opening the old one up and mucking around with it. This is coming from a guy who tries to fix everything, Steve.

[sgbernd]

I have the bronze base on the Groco HF and the whole job, remove the old pump and install the new pump, then test, one was less than 1 hour. Mess was minimal, mostly mopping up the spilt water from opening the hoses. Probably the hardest part of the job was deciding to spend the money as it wasn't cheap, but Defender had them on sale this spring which softened the blow a bit.

If you have the plastic base, probably you should replace the whole toilet as the plastic gets brittle with age and will ultimately fail.

[Joe Myerson]

Sgbernd,

I have the bronze base too. However I had to take the whole head assembly off the boat to remove the broken pump. One of the screws was completely bonded into the base. I eventually drilled it out.

If I had had the plastic base, I suspect it would have been damaged by the same burst of compressed air that destroyed the pump.

Being a dunce, I rented a compressed-air device from my local tool rental to try to clear out a blockage in the plumbing. It succeeded, but I stupidly decided to give it another blast for good measure. The top of the pump came flying off!

Stick to snakes for clearing blockages!

--Joe