B190 Enthusiasts

Hi all! I've been following topics for quite some time and appreciate all of your hints and tips! I recently did an Alaska Highway trip (Alcan) and the b190 did great! We call her the Sandcrawler. I have been trying to winterize for the past two weeks and have been having problems with the water pump. It works for a couple of minutes and then stops. It sounds like the motor is whirring but the pump doesn't sound like it is engaging like it does when it is pumping water, if that makes any sense. I've tried connecting to electricity in case it was a low battery and no luck. Fuses and breakers are fine. My boyfriend wants to pull it out and work on it but we aren't sure how to get to it sufficiently to work on it. How do you get to the water pump to work on it? Remove panels? Do you have any ideas on other things we can try? Thank you!

Looks like your question got double posted, so I'll delete the other one.

In my 1991, the water pump is under the closet; the only way I can see to access it would be to remove at least part of the closet.

To access the water pump in our 1993, you remove the floor of the closet.

I have a '90 - the water pump is next to the water heater - which is under the "bump" in the closet. So, yes, you need to disassemble the closet. The pumps do go bad... which is a bummer... but they're not too expensive or difficult to replace (once you get to it). I replaced mine with an updated Shur-Flo - totally worth it!!! If you need help (or inspiration!), pm me.

Thank you everyone! Looks like we have some to remove.

Skater, I am not sure why it posted twice, but thank you for getting rid of it!

slapthecat wrote:I have a '90 - the water pump is next to the water heater - which is under the "bump" in the closet. So, yes, you need to disassemble the closet. The pumps do go bad... which is a bummer... but they're not too expensive or difficult to replace (once you get to it). I replaced mine with an updated Shur-Flo - totally worth it!!! If you need help (or inspiration!), pm me.

Hey slapthecat... An everyone else. I'm curious if your replacement pump is less of a drain on the battery? Ours works (1992) but it is the single biggest energy consumer in the coach. We have a rule that the water pump gets turned off when the sun goes down - the solar can keep up, put the pump will deplete the battery in no time and then I worry we'll lose the blower on the furnace overnight. Anyone have inpit on a direct replacement that is more efficient? Is this normal for the original pump? BTW I know our house battery is poor.
Thanks

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I have the original pump on my 91 and last summer removed the "bump in the closet" panels and squeezed in a ShurFlo air tank so it doesn't cycle on and off as much. I had one on the 61 Tradewind and felt it was worth the effort. But it turned out to be a tricky job getting the Pex tool in the right position to clamp the rings. It requires taking all three panels out but that part is easy. 4th

Micabarry-
Thank you for posting the note about your SurFlo Accumulator Tank. I was not aware of that piece of hardware. I just read up on them at SurFlo's website. Sounds interesting. We may want to add that to our update list!

I see that SurFlo offers a variety of sizes. Do you remember what size tank you installed? Do you feel that the one you installed was as large as you need?

Thanks again for the mention...

I went back to my Amazon orders and found that it is numbered 182-200. I mounted it on the inside of the curb side bath wall with decorative washers and stainless bolts so the new holes looked ok from the bath, and only connected one side of the air tank, sealing one. You don't have to put these in the line but I believe the instructions want it as close to the outflow of the pump as possible. Hope that makes sense to you. Barely does to me. Like a lot of jobs on the B190 this one involved a small operating space and My first try leaked. As I mentioned in previous post it was hard to get crimping tool in the right position. Second try was successful.

And yes, I believe it was large enough.

Thank you for the model number and your observation that the size seems to be adequate. I really like the idea of eliminating some of the on/off cycles of the pump when the water is set to a low flow rate. Its a double win... reduces the cycle noise and doesn't hit the coach battery as often.

Just throwing out another option than the tank - there are pumps that are variable speed, so they won't cycle on and off while you're using water; they'll just change speeds. I haven't used one, but I've always been curious about them.

907b190 wrote:Hi all! I've been following topics for quite some time and appreciate all of your hints and tips! I recently did an Alaska Highway trip (Alcan) and the b190 did great! We call her the Sandcrawler. I have been trying to winterize for the past two weeks and have been having problems with the water pump. It works for a couple of minutes and then stops. It sounds like the motor is whirring but the pump doesn't sound like it is engaging like it does when it is pumping water, if that makes any sense. I've tried connecting to electricity in case it was a low battery and no luck. Fuses and breakers are fine. My boyfriend wants to pull it out and work on it but we aren't sure how to get to it sufficiently to work on it. How do you get to the water pump to work on it? Remove panels? Do you have any ideas on other things we can try? Thank you!

Not hard to unscrew the few screws to the floor of the closet. That completely opens up the space and had to do that to put in the bypass to water heater and the connection to winterize.

Once you remove the closet screws dont bother putting them back, the floor will stay in place and you'll have easy access to visually inspect all that is there and to retrieve anything that may make its way in from the back