Just spent 14 hours on a boiler feed pump that should have taken three

It was a simple bearing swap on a big vertical feed pump at the plant. The old bearing came out fine, but the new one would not seat. We tried heating the housing, freezing the bearing, and every puller in the shop. Turns out, the housing had a tiny, almost invisible burr from the last install. A quick hit with a fine stone and it slid right in. That burr cost us a whole shift and a lot of frustration. Anyone else had a simple job blown up by something you couldn't see at first?

3 comments

3 Comments

christopher_west13mo ago

Gotta disagree a bit there. That hidden burr is exactly what the pre-check is for. Running a finger or a stone around the bore should be step one, not step ten after the fight. Those lost hours are on the process, not the part.

kevin_flores3mo ago

Sounds like a ghost in the machine, man.

the_vera15d ago

My buddy works over at a chemical plant and had a similar nightmare on a coolant pump. He spent half a day fighting a new mechanical seal that kept leaking right out of the box. After tearing it down three times, he spotted a tiny hairline crack in the pump housing that was barely visible under a flashlight. That crack let just enough pressure bleed past the seal to mess everything up, and they had to weld it up and re-machine the face.