I have been told that the bleed hole can plug up, which makes me paranoid. I had a couple of Scott 16s, into which I put new impellers at $28 apiece. The whole motor is apparently worth less than the cost of the impellers; so I didn’t want to burn them up. I made a tubular water pick up that I attached to the transom, something like a speedo pitot tube, only bigger. (3/8″) I brought a hose from that into the boat, attached a primer bulb to it and ran the hose back to the bailer inlet, on the leg. I primed the pumps with the primer bulb and went. As I drove the boat, you could see that the bailer outlet was always producing good water. So, it seems like the primer bulb idea works. I suppose that, if the bleed hole really did pug up, the primer bulb would do nothing to prime the cooling impeller. However, on the other hand, it would seem like the cooling pump might actually prime itself better with the hole plugged. Also, a primed bailer pump would help keep the whole pump assembly cool until the main pump primed….Dunno.
I know some guys don’t even run a bailer pump; but my feeling is, where is the challenge in doing THAT?
Long live American manufacturing!
