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86 5.0L
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2006
- Messages
- 7,085
A few weeks ago, the pump in my modified Glacer kit finally died after 2 and a half years of reliable service, the pumps seem to be a fairly common issue with these kits.
https://hardforum.com/threads/cm-glacer-pump-died.1939941/
I ordered another CM AIO kit that i was planning to salvage the pump from. I started the teardown process, and during the process decided what the heck, lets take apart the pump. Maybe we can see what failed and why.
After carefully popping the pump cover(its glued on) off, that revealed 4 screws, easy enough. Heres the inside of the pump, showing some kind of flakes
The impeller was locked up HARD. prying at it with a small screwdriver finally freed it up. I could have probably tested it but figured I would just continue with replacement.
BUT WAIT.
I found an old MCP35x pump that I had forgotten about and found while digging out my tools and WC supplies, and the CM pump seemed oddly familiar...
these are the "tops" of each pump, CM left, Swiftech right.
while the impellers are pretty different in design(MCP35x is removable and has a "roof"), their functions seem identical(vanes are the same orientation)
There is a noticeable difference in height, which caused a 1-2mm gap mating the new pump with old CM top, thanks to this nub...
Time to bust out the old trusty dremel and grind that nub off
Success!
Interestingly enough the old CM cover lines up with the Swiftech pump holes
Since I was feeling like such a manly overachiever, I decided to paracord the pump wires(I bought the stuff probably 10 years ago and never got around to it.)
Oh my goodness! My fingers were on fire inching the paracord mm by mm over the wires. I had to solder the power wires near the end and with the extra layer from the heat shrink made it impossible to do a clean run, had to split them and individually paracord them. it was the last 2ish inches and it doesn't look as bad as I thought. The wires are super long though, didn't want to clip them too short in case I reuse the pump in a bigger case in the future
with this extra dose of victory, I thought hey lets make a custom PSU molex connector. I had an extra set from RMAing my silverstone PSU.
I removed one pin at a time and cut the wire right at the crimp. removing the 2nd and 3rd molex connectors
Finished!
Time to put it all back together. So I first tried bench testing the new pump to see if it would even flow any water. Every time though the pump would screech like a banshee. Panicking, I figured the nub needed to be ground down more. Used the dremel again and almost got rid of the nub completely. Still the pump was screeching. I feared the pump was dead after sitting for so long. I tried a last ditch effort by priming the system and seeing if slowing the pump did anything. I was shocked when I saw strong flow thru my GPU block, while the pump was no longer screeching(it was still hella loud, I forgot how loud these little suckers are)
Leak testing(yup with the PC running, I know, I know, I'm a badass)
Everything squeezed in, its a tight fit.
back to being one sexy beast of a machine
https://hardforum.com/threads/cm-glacer-pump-died.1939941/
I ordered another CM AIO kit that i was planning to salvage the pump from. I started the teardown process, and during the process decided what the heck, lets take apart the pump. Maybe we can see what failed and why.
After carefully popping the pump cover(its glued on) off, that revealed 4 screws, easy enough. Heres the inside of the pump, showing some kind of flakes
The impeller was locked up HARD. prying at it with a small screwdriver finally freed it up. I could have probably tested it but figured I would just continue with replacement.
BUT WAIT.
I found an old MCP35x pump that I had forgotten about and found while digging out my tools and WC supplies, and the CM pump seemed oddly familiar...
these are the "tops" of each pump, CM left, Swiftech right.
while the impellers are pretty different in design(MCP35x is removable and has a "roof"), their functions seem identical(vanes are the same orientation)
There is a noticeable difference in height, which caused a 1-2mm gap mating the new pump with old CM top, thanks to this nub...
Time to bust out the old trusty dremel and grind that nub off
Success!
Interestingly enough the old CM cover lines up with the Swiftech pump holes
Since I was feeling like such a manly overachiever, I decided to paracord the pump wires(I bought the stuff probably 10 years ago and never got around to it.)
Oh my goodness! My fingers were on fire inching the paracord mm by mm over the wires. I had to solder the power wires near the end and with the extra layer from the heat shrink made it impossible to do a clean run, had to split them and individually paracord them. it was the last 2ish inches and it doesn't look as bad as I thought. The wires are super long though, didn't want to clip them too short in case I reuse the pump in a bigger case in the future
with this extra dose of victory, I thought hey lets make a custom PSU molex connector. I had an extra set from RMAing my silverstone PSU.
I removed one pin at a time and cut the wire right at the crimp. removing the 2nd and 3rd molex connectors
Finished!
Time to put it all back together. So I first tried bench testing the new pump to see if it would even flow any water. Every time though the pump would screech like a banshee. Panicking, I figured the nub needed to be ground down more. Used the dremel again and almost got rid of the nub completely. Still the pump was screeching. I feared the pump was dead after sitting for so long. I tried a last ditch effort by priming the system and seeing if slowing the pump did anything. I was shocked when I saw strong flow thru my GPU block, while the pump was no longer screeching(it was still hella loud, I forgot how loud these little suckers are)
Leak testing(yup with the PC running, I know, I know, I'm a badass)
Everything squeezed in, its a tight fit.
back to being one sexy beast of a machine
