Today I didn`t mow the lawn, wash the car or even fix the gate that needs repairing. All that got put aside so I could fix my 12 volt water pump in the Expanda.
I already had this pump installed before I bought the van but it never seemed to draw any water for more than a few seconds.
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I`d use the hand pump to prime it but it always lost pressure within a few seconds.
I wasn`t sure whether there was a leak in the water line or whether the pump was faulty. As mentioned earlier it was installed into the same line as the manual hand pump, which makes sense to me as I can prime it with a couple of pumps.
The hand pump is situated above the electric pump.
I took the tube below the electric pump off, and placed a large cup of water at the intake, flicked the switch and saw water pass through to the tap. This showed me that there was nothing wrong with the pump, and my problem was probably an air leak somewhere in the line.
My next move was to refit the hose back onto the electric pump intake. Before doing this I wrapped a little plumbers tape around the pump end, just to get a good seal. I slid the plastic hose back over the pump intake and then fastened a hose clamp over the tube tightening with a flat screw driver.
Before moving on to the next step I just primed the pump by 2 or 3 pumps with the hand pump and then turned the switch on.
Guess what? WATER BEGAN POURING OUT OF THE TAP CONTINUOUSLY.
I thought I had a few more processes to go through looking for a split or kinked hose but the air leak was at the base of the pump.
So now I have flowing water at the press of a button. No more twenty manual pumps to get a glass of water.
WOOOHOOOOOO!
By the way, the pump is only small in size but does the job well. It sits in the cupboard in front of the cutlery draws under the sink. It doesn`t interfere with the opening and closing of these draws either.
I found the picture above on ebay by searching "12v inline water pump".
