Simplifying Water Pump Replacement

This Shur-Flo Revolution 4008 water pump lasted one month shy of four years. Suddenly yesterday the pump became very noisy, although it was still providing water. When I went to check on the problem, I found that three screws that hold the upper valve assembly in place had fallen completely out and others were loose.

That black stuff on the white board below the pump are fine particles that evidently came out of the pump as it tried to destroy itself. What I found amazing was the the pump was still working....and it was not leaking a drop of water!

Fortunately I carry a spare pump in the RV and was able to swap the pumps. As luck would have it, we were planning to make a stop at Camping World the next day, so we added a new water pump to our shopping list. Since I wanted to install the new pump as soon we got home (because of warranty issues), I decided I need to make the swapping out of pumps a bit easier.

One thing that would make life easier trying to change the pump when on the road is insert some wire connectors in the electrical feed to the pump. The connections were soldered and wrapped with tape. Both the new and the spare had similar connectors attached. Now all I need to do is unbolt the pump from its mount, disconnect the wires, install the new pump and plug it in.

But there is a second problem: I had to drain the fresh water tank before I could remove the water lines from the pump. This time I was lucky - we were at a campground with water available. But had we been boondocking somewhere with no water with which to fill the tank, we would have had a problem.

The solution: I installed a shut-off valve in the feed line from the water tank to the pump. Now I can close the valve if I need to work on the pump and I'll not lose any water.