running jets out of water

[wrenchdaddy]

I've heard that you shouldnt run a jet out of the water no matter what. I also heard that its ok to run panther pumps out of water just not berks? whats the difference?? Can someone asnwer this for me? Im running a panther and I just wanna know if its ok to fire up every once in a while in the driveway.

[Cas]

yep, you can run the Panther out of water for quite awhile, I broke my cam in with the pump hooked up, about 25 minutes at 2500 rpms.
The biggest differences are the main bearings of a Panther are constantly submerged in 90w gear oil that keeps them cool and the front seal is ceramic, also being cooled by the oil.
The main thing you should do is to make sure you grease the rear zerk fitting about every 20 hours or so. If you don't know where it's located, raise the reverse gate, look inside the nozzle and you will see it about 6in in.

[mickeyfinn]

Shouldn't run the pump out of the water. The engine is fine if you uncouple it. Doesn't matter what kind of pump you have, wear rings and packing glands don't like to be run dry. Some people will tell you that you can run one out of the water if you spray water into the intake. Don't believe them. You have to run one for a while before you actually do damage to the wear ring. Spraying water does almost nothing for your packing gland and this is what willl go first. Doesn't take long to heat that up and either wear out the packing or score the shaft. It won't hurt it if you just "fire" the engine and immediately shut it down if all you are doing is making sure it will start before going to the lake but if you are trying to tune the engine or something else which makes you need to run it for more than 2 or 3 seconds then disconnect the pump.

[Cas]

Mickey,
Unless a Panther is modified, they don't have wear rings and none of them have packing. As mentioned in the previous post, Panthers have a ceramic front seal.
As far as starting the engine before launching, it's very advisable to back, pull out then back in before you start it. Doing so will help clean out any dirt, sand, pebbles or other foreign objects that can harm the wear ring on the pumps that have them or the housing on the pumps that don't.

[wrenchdaddy]

what is a packing gland, what does it do and where is it? So berks and other pumps aren't lubricated with gear oil? do they just have more grease fittings or what?

[wrenchdaddy]

my pump has a bronze sleeve installed

[Cas]

what is a packing gland, what does it do and where is it? So berks and other pumps aren't lubricated with gear oil? do they just have more grease fittings or what?
Panthers don't have a packing gland.
The packing on a Berk is at the front of the shaft (engine side of pump) that is a wrapping that acts like a seal.
Do you have a Panther manuel? If not, I'd really advise you to get one, they come in real handy.

[wrenchdaddy]

i already have a panther manual, thanks for the info.

[Cas]

As far as the bronze sleeve, you're still ok to run it out of water, just not as long. Before doing so, it would be a very good idea to make sure to spray water up into the intake to try and wash out anything that may gbe between the impeller and the sleeve.
When you tow, there is a lot of dirt and sand that will kick up into the pump. If you start the engine before doing a rinse, you will harm the wear ring or sleeve.

[Cas]

Since you have the manual, look at chapter 3 page 2. On that page you will see the sealing system of the Panther with the locations of the seals, bushings and bearings.
If you'd like to compare the Panther with the Berk, www.cpperformance.com has an exploded view of just about all of the Berk pumps.