small town when it hit's, it all hit's.

fiver

Well-Known Member
I been fighting a stomach flu almost all day and was on my way for another trip to the bathroom when the boy see's me and say's hey Dad the pump downstairs is running kind of funny.
give me a sec.
in I go and out I come as quick as possible.

I go down there and pull the pump out to see what's up and the bottom seal is broken.
it's not shutting off and it's not moving any water except around in circles in the catch bucket.
MAN! %*^&$(****!!!!)
I have been waiting to get a new pump until I get some cash in about 4 day's just so we would have a back-up since this IS the back-up pump.
the wife has to open the store tomorrow, so she is in bed since it's 8:57 PM, and they open at 3:30 for the mine workers.

I bail up the stairs, throw on what I thought was 2 shoes the same, hit the remote start on the truck and head out the door.
it's a couple miles to the closest place that MIGHT still be open and that MIGHT have a pump.
I'm rolling in their parking lot at about 5 mph over the speed limit on the highway seeing they are all but closed.
[turning the lights off closed]
the manager see's my truck and drives over to see what's up and I tell him what I need and where it is and he opens back up for me.
in and out in 3 minutes flat.
their till and everything is down so I have to take the box back over tomorrow and get rung up and pay for it, but I got what I needed to get home and get things going again.

from here to the store , in and out, and the second pump in and running in under 15 minutes at 9 pm.
anywhere else and I would have been up all night hauling buckets of water.

I think I have the seal [more like chunk of interference fit plastic] fixed, I will test it tomorrow and swap the old pump back in if it's good.
it also confirmed where most of my water is coming from since I got a real good view of how the bucket is filling.
after tearing it down and ]hopefully] re-sealing the centrifugal part of the pump I'm pretty positive I know what happened to break it me and the boy are gonna have a talk tomorrow.... maybe,, if I'm feeling up to it.
when I test the other pump I will be able to show him what would have happened if he had broke the pipe that goes over to the drain instead of the bottom.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Man, my day was pretty ok after all. Glad you got the mess stalemated for a bit.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
at least the wife quit complaining about the pump keeping her awake at night.
she was sound asleep before I got the other pump half torn apart.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
We have a local hardware that's open 7A-7P 7 days a week. You'd be amazed at the number of people lined up at opening on a Sunday morning...

At least you had a local place willing to stay open a couple minutes and trust you for the $$$. Small town, small town values.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
the ACE is part of the grocery store, the SIL is the produce/receiving manager at the connected store, and
2 of the cashiers at the ACE live within sight of my house.
I think they know how to find me... LOL.

I got the first pump totally repaired, and a new piece built so another pump swap can be affected in about 30 seconds just by un/re-screwing one coupling and plugging in the new pump after dropping it in the collection bucket.
 

Todd M

Craftsman of metals...always learning.
The longer we live near a small town, and with my job (plumber) where I meet new people at least every week, the more I love the small town atmosphere. Just good common sense and a will to help out.