Just finished a impeller replacement on a 2008 R25 with the QSD. My pumps back has a plate that's held on by four bolt and is fairly accessible from the back of the engine.
Helpful tools here are a three foot extension for the sockets, a two foot long pair of needle nose pliers,a deep and shallow socket for the bolts and a magnet on a stick for you know what.
Helpful tricks for removal are marking the plate with a arrow prior to removal in order to facilitate installation, the four bolt holes are in no way squared around. There’s a picture of my pump with the cover off in my album illustrating this.
Using the deep socket to remove the bolts will usually cause the bolt to end up in the socket and if you keep it horizontal while it travels back to you, there’s your bolt in your hand! This can be where the magnet on a stick comes in handy and yes, I carry extra bolts!
Grasping the impeller with the two foot long needle nose pliers I tugged at 12 6 9 and 3 o’clock positions for about five cycles before any movement was noticeable. It got about a quarter of the way out and then popped out. I had it replaced at purchase so I knew the hours on it.
The install was eased with plenty of lube and the wire tie trick I found here on the ‘Nuts. I put a bolt through the plate and was able to get it hung back on by one point by hand. After I threaded another bolt by hand I used the shallow socket to install the remaining bolts remotely by using a dab of grease to hold the bolt temporally in the socket for the horizontal journey to the pump.
I always try to envision any task being done while on the water, I’d put this one down as less than pleasant but doable. Usually when I change things out prior to failure the old one becomes the spare, belts are a good example, here with impellers I always just slap a new one in, I bought half a dozen when I purchased the Tug.
