Cas said...
Tolly,
I just got through rebuilding 2 Panthers in the past couple of months and went through another a couple of years ago, none of them leaked. A person only needs to follow the manual to freshen up a pump. If a proper press isn't used to get the bearings off the shaft, there's a good chance of bad things happening, like a cracked housing or gouging of the shaft.
Yeah, that is what the guys at Panther told me as well. I never went through my pump myself, but I can tell you that with the exception of ADM everyone who touched my pump made it leak.I think most of them did not use a manual and just tried to "wing it" if you know what I mean. I used the diverter set up from ADM that uses a regular berkely style nozzle and Place Diverter which worked very well but will not fit under the factory pump cover. I didn't like the pump cover anyway, but it is my understanding that Panther now makes one that will fit under the cover. I worked with the pump for three years trying to make my boat faster, and in the end before I switched to the Berk I had the boat running very fast for a Panther pump. For an everyday run around, ski, tubing and reliable drive I think it would be hard to beat the Panther.