As previously mentioned we've been going through the boat making sure its ready for the heavy fishing and boating we will soon be doing. A checkup of the bilge pump revealed it had broken off its bracket, and was flopping around in the bottom of the boat.
The plastic mounting bracket that held it to the boat frame had broken. The pump, though dirty, was still running strong.
I bought a new pump, and as we began the installation, I realized we could fix the original pump and make a new bracket...
Here is the lower unit on the pump. By using a galvanized bracket and screws, we designed a simple attachment bracket.
We bent the bracket to a 90* angle for attaching to the boat frame, and put a slight bend in the other end of the bracket to fit the side of the pump's lower unit. We pre-drilled 1/8" holes, and screwed the bracket to the pump. Generous 'gorilla' glue also ensured a secure attachment.
Here is the new bracket and the pump motor connected.
The bilge pump is too important not to test it out well to make sure we didn't goof somehow - better to find a goof now than when taking on water!Everything ran well for several buckets...
We used the original mount hole for a screw to secure the bracket to the inside wall. Nice-n-easy.
Here is the final result. The bracket had 4 different mount holes to conveniently select one that will hold the pump just off the bottom of the boat. The motor locked into place, and the boat is back together and ready for action. 625 gallons per minute, action!
