I did check book engineering on my 35 year old pump last year. It was almost $500 but divided by 35, not too bad.

Other than the entire pump assembly is relatively expensive, I agree, the long life of this old pump works out to being fairly be inexpensive.

I also think that the shaft "may" have been the biggest culprit in why this old pump wouldn't prime. As noted by Chris the impeller has to be able to freely float or slide onto the shaft so that it can center itself in the pump housing. My impeller would not do that and required being tapped onto the shaft. There wasn't a fin or anything, but the shaft ends were very slightly bent. So I could have bought the $100 shaft to then find out that the body was too far gone too, or that some other thing was goofing this thing up.

I should also note that what I meant by a Yanmar replacement was the entire engine, that was in the neighborhood of $10,000 before installation. I did buy the Yanmar water pump.

Weather is crap here right now and I am tempted to go up and pull the head and transmission to service them too while I have some time to wait before starting any outdoor projects. I reread where Josh B. had pulled these parts and left the block in the boat. That seems more workable than figuring out how to get the block down to the ground from 11' up in the air.