my buddys panther has been leaking since the day we got it running and can't figure it out.  so its leaking water from what looks like a weap hole in the suction housing on the front surface in what looks to be the bearing housing??   any thoughts??

It (the Panther) has a "mechanical seal" which seals the lake from the bearing (oil) if its "fouled or failed it will leak thru the "tattle tale" weep hole into the boat , It will eventually foul the 90 wt and destroy the front thrust bearing as well , Needs attention ASAP call if you need help Tom

The Stator (tailshaft hsg) comes off then the Impeller nut and impeller then the Mechanical seal We stock the seal (around 80 bucks) This is all assuming the bearing has not been compromised Tom

Yeah its bad that weep hole is there for a reason its letting you know to replace it. tell your friend to do his-self a favor go buy a Berk. I have a Panther and cant wait to get it off my hands. no one wants to touch it

Or he can have JBP convert it to Berk.

Give Tom a call

how much to convert it to a berk?

805-466-4719 Tom JBP

i have had my panther for 3 years now. i have been thru just as many motors but i have never had a problem with my panther. except for the lack of rooster tail and cool factor it has been a great pump. I just hate that the energizer kit is so expensive just to get like 5 mor mph. my boat will do about 58 right now. and i was told the energizer kit will add 15% to that.

i have been throwing around the idea of changing to a berk but my boat just keeps working so if it aint broke dont fix it.

not bad. i heard their diverter slows the boat down a bit. is that true??

sweet. do you have any expierence with the energizer kit. i want more cool and speed out of my boat but i dont want to have to cut out the whole back end to swap pumps

ya your mods look awesome. i am interested in some numbers. and i would like to see what can be done on my boat. i want a diverter bad but i dont want to lose any speed since i am already not exactly a speedboat. lol. i have hit 58 in my boat via gps and that is not bad for a stock panther.

energizer kit is like 3k$ isnt it? that is a lot of money for a 10 to 15 percent increase that they are claiming. if it is a true 15% increase i would probalby get it. but i dont want to fork out that kind of money for an unknown

the diverter is almost a grand and from the looks of it you have to do some heavy modification to make it all work right.

might just be easier to replace the pump imo.

Like Tom at JBP said. when replacing the main pump seal (behind the impeller) you have to remove the exit housing, the impeller nut & impeller. all these things can be done with the pump left in the boat, However, you need to find out why it failed. either the DU bushing in the tail housing is bad & is letting the shaft wobble or the bearings are worn. There really isnt to much to pulling the Panther out. Just need to support the back of the motor, remove the 5 bolts & the couple other connections. Its way easier to play with the pump on a bench, as they arent very complicated.

About gaining some speed from modding the Panthervator, It feels way quicker then before any mods, and quite a bit looser (not as much boat in the water) then it did with the stock exit housing on it. The friend I took with me during its maiden test, owns a pretty fast Carrera with a Berk, droop & jetovator. I wanted an outside opinion, so I took him for a 20 minute cruise, then I swapped the exit housing to see if you could feel a seat of the pants difference, let alone the visual differences in the tail. There was obvious improvement. The difference to me, from the initial install of the Panther Modified Exit housing vs the few mods I did to it, are like nite & day. I still need to go play on the water a bit so I can get a real feel of whats improved. soon as the weather gets a little drier up here in NorCal. I'll post my results here in this thread. But I must say I'm pretty excited. Ive owned my Tahiti for over 15 years and it finaly feels like the Hot Boat it should be. 78_Tahiti aka Steve Mac.

The most reasonble way to doit is find a used Pantervator. I have been toying with the Idea of how to perform the machine work needed for the exit housing. the lever and actuator I think Panther did a great job on. I have talked to Steve @ Panther Jet a few times over the years and he has always been pretty helpful. Their shop has all the equipment to perform the little things I did as they modify a stock exit housing for the adjustable trim insert that they produce. Its a matter of will they modify the way they do their modification. the stainless tubing just needs to be cut a little different at one end, and the steering nozzle cleaned up a bit. I would think they would want to produce a better version. Im sure the customer satisfaction and amount of renewed interest by Panther owners all over would benefit Panther, by the business it could generate.

do they have any plans of making the needed corrections. and i agree the guys at panther are always helpfull when i call for advice.

I dont know, I know (from previous experience) that this time of year things are always hopping at Panther. Spring coming and all. I figured I would get some more seat time in my boat and see if there are any other little revisions I need to do before I call it done. I have a lot more pictures then I posted in my Panther Thread at Laid Back Boaters.com. I figured I could make a "How to Thread" . And if there is enough interest to justify it. I may go ahead and look for a bench top style mill, and look into setting up shop to perform my "Panthervator Conversion" on peoples Panther exit housing.