Troubleshooting a RWP

A friend came to me frustrated with his Sherwood RWP on his 88 2001. He lost cooling and was towed back home. He R&R'd the impeller and still no cooling water. He checked the basics like strainer gasket, suction side hose tightness and pump direction with no positive results. He rigged up hoses for a bucket test and the results proved something was still wrong. He brought the pump over and after opening it up, I found the wear plate was really grooved from the raised "O ring" surface on the impeller plus the paper gasket was installed on the O ring side of the wear plate. Removed the wear plate, polished up the unworn side, flipped it and put the pump back together. So, the bottom line is check your wear plates.

Gary,
This is the first time I've heard about Sherwood's recommended service interval on the wear plate. WOW, I know the OEM's love to sell parts since it's a great profit for them but that interval is ridiculous!! This particular plate on the 88 is close to 30 years old. Flip it over (they don't mention that!!) and you get another 30 years out of it. Then there's me and my running impellers for 50 years!

BTW, we've been having a mini tubing tournament and doing mostly beach tube starts. That must be churning up the beach sand that attacked the wear plate!