How to measure a shaft
- Unplug the pump or isolate it at the breaker, then remove the old seal. If you open the motor end, discharge the run capacitor before you touch anything.
- Measure the shaft where the seal sat, with vernier callipers. Be exact: 12 mm and 1/2″ (12.7 mm) are different seals.
- Pick imperial or metric. Pumps designed in Australasia mostly use imperial shafts; European pumps mostly use metric.
- Check the faces. A dark grey rotating face is carbon and a white or pale grey seat is ceramic; a mirror-hard dark pair is silicon carbide.
- Compare with the old seal and keep it until the new one is confirmed. Two seals for the same shaft can still differ in seat diameter and length.