chadbacca

First of all, please forgive me - i'm not an idiot, but pools and spas are completely Greek to me, so I apologize for any wrong names, inaccurate descriptions, etc... Okay, so the wife and I just closed on a house a few weeks ago. Included was a nice, large spa on the deck. The home was owned by an older couple who hadn't used it in years, but took relatively good care of it. It's older though (most recently dated part I could find on it is 1995). Anyway, it turns on fine, jets work, bubbler works, heater works, etc... all is well there. The issue I am coming across is a leak from one of the jet pumps. It appears to be the pump that is directly connected to the heater. There's a spigot before the water that goes into the jet, and when I close the spigot, the heater turns off (independently of me turning off the heater itself). The leak is fairly minor, but if I turn on the jets, it increases quite a bit. It's nothing crazy, but I don't like the idea of water soaking up the deck that supports everything. I believe that the source of the issue is a leaky seal - it's been sitting for quite some time without being used, so i'd imagine they are dried up and cracked. From the parts that I looked at online, it seems that the leak is coming from the spinning rod located between (what I believe) is the wet end, and the metal cylinder part of the jet. I've included a picture where the water is leaking, as well as a close up of the parts descriptor on the pump itself. Again, I apologize if this is difficult to make sense of, but I would appreciate any and all help. We live up in the Sequoia Nat'l Forest here in California, and the closest spa/jaccuzi specialists are 2+ hrs away, so I'd rather exhaust all of my resources and troubleshoot this on my own before ponying up the extra cash to have someome travel up here.