Warning to Owners of Gen-X Mak4/PCX40 pumps...

[tgunn]

I recently purchased a used Gen-X PCX-40 pump from here. The previous owner had bought it used himself and ended up not needing it.

Anyways, 3 of the screws used to hold the impeller housing together had extremely stripped heads. I bought a set of damaged screw removers and got an entire screw, plus half of the other 2 removed. They apparently were quite rusted and snapped. Of the remaining 2, 1 came out with ease, and the other snapped off flush with the pump housing...
http://www.egunn.com/gunnsreef/genx_bad.jpg

I would suggest anyone who is considering buying a pump like this make sure to have the previous owner show pictures of the pump disassembled before purchasing. This way you know you're not going to end up with a mess like this to deal with.

I'd also suggest that you replace the screws with stainless steel ones... Helk, replace them every year or so. The screws I got were only $0.26 each and for 6 of them we'll talking peanuts compared to the hassle I'm now dealing with.

A buddy of mine has some different screw removers and a tap and die set so he should be able to re-thread the hole for me. I'll let you all know how that goes..

Please,learn from my misfortune!

Later,
Tyler

[szesteve]

Sorry to hear about that.

I just bought 2 of these myself(New though) and they're a different color.

Also, I see u have some rusting on the sides of the pump...

[N8MAN1068]

hmm...a drill and retap is possible.
or...jb weld it.

[tgunn]

Originally posted by szesteve
Sorry to hear about that.

I just bought 2 of these myself(New though) and they're a different color.

Also, I see u have some rusting on the sides of the pump...

I'm probably going to still pick up some more of these new; I've heard so many good things about them.

Yeah, it looks like the first owner of the pump didn't clean it out very often; the fan grill was caked up nicely with dust and salt creep. I'm definitely going to be more careful how I mount my pumps!

Tyler

[tgunn]

Originally posted by N8MAN1068
hmm...a drill and retap is possible.
or...jb weld it.

I'm crossing my finges on the drill and retap. :) If that fails I'll just try it out with that screw missing. Perhaps the seal will be fine without it. Who knows..

Just figured I'd pass along the info about the screws so people know to take 'em out and clean 'em once in a while before this kind of thing happens. It's the kind of regular maintenance I'm going to be sure to perform..

Tyler

[rufio173]

hey tgunn,

It's worth a try, but I'd be wary of it especially if you put it under a high pressure situation.

You must have an old one there, because mine are all blue colored.

Peace,
John H.

[tgunn]

Originally posted by rufio173
hey tgunn,

It's worth a try, but I'd be wary of it especially if you put it under a high pressure situation.

You must have an old one there, because mine are all blue colored.

Peace,
John H.

Yeah, I'm guessing it's a bit of an older one; I've noticed they're all blue when sold online..

If the retap works, then I'm sure I can trust it to hold up under pressure (ie pumping from the basement to upstairs, or powering my DIY beckett skimmer)....

If the retap doesn't work, I'll try it out and see if it works as is. As you said, I definitely wouldn't trust it; I'd just keep it on hand as a backup pump should one of my main pumps die out.

Kinda a bummer. But I guess I've learned my lesson; I'm just going to buy all my pumps new...

Later,
Tyler