Scamp hand pump

[shechelle]

I recently purchased a 2007 Scamp 16 and took it on it's maiden voyage over the weekend. I poured about 2 buckets of water into the tank and tried to pump it to the kitchen sink but was unable to get water to come out. Does it need to be full in order to start working? Any ideas where to start figuring this out? Thanks.

[Borrego Dave]

Not sure of the plumbing on a Scamp but think someone had the same problem recently and it was a by pass valve closed for winter freeze ups. The valve was close to the water heater. Don't know how big of bucket you used or how much you got in it but with a couple inches of water in the tank it should pump fine.

[Jon in AZ]

I'm thinking there are a couple of possibilities. One is that the ring or gasket inside the pump is dried out and no longer sealing. The other is that there is a crack or split in the water line somewhere. Agree that it should work with only a gallon or two of water.

I've never had mine apart, so I'm not much help on the troubleshooting details, but that's what I'd be suspecting.

[floyd]

Before you disassemble the pump try to prime it by simply applying vacuum to the faucet while pumping the handle slowly.
Easiest way is to treat the faucet like a soda straw.
This will often restore the faucet to working order once the line is filled.
If that doesn't work then you may need to disassemble the pump.

[Bob in Mb]

It is possible that the check valve is either stuck or not seating properly , you might free it by gently tapping the bottom of the pump . Otherwise you need to take the pump apart and see what is going on . If you wanted you could take the supply line off the pump and hold a container of water covering the intake and try the pump , that would tell you whether the problem is in the pump or the supply line . I did one time refurbish a pump with new 0 rings and gaskets but it was never as good as new . Considering the reasonable cost of a new pump it is probably a better solution that spending too much time trying to fix the old one .

[Bill Nolen]

The 37 year old Rocket Water Pump that is on my 1978 13' Scamp must be primed with a small amount ofwater before it will pump water.

The "snout" must be removed, and water pored into the top opening of the pump, and then the snout replaced.

I don't know if this is due to it's age, or perhaps it works like several hand pumps I have had on pick-up campers, that had to be primed the first time they were to be used each camping season. After that they worked just fine.

Bill