trying to be patient

[tomshobby]

Well, my engine is supposed to be done Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. And actually it has worked out pretty well because I have had plenty of things to keep me busy. I noticed this morning, with the sun shining in the garage, that my car is ready also. It also showed that I need to clean the bay after the work is finished. Oh, bother! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

BTW: The new wind wings can just be seen. Shirley and I have found the wind bothers our eyes more now than when we were in our twenty's and hope these help.

I stopped with the new bearing/shaft in my pump last evening. I will probably finish it today and then do a couple of pic, step-by-step posts of the process. and a few other things about the job.

 

[tdskip]

Hi Tom - thanks for keeping us up to date.

Where did you get those wings? I bet they make a big difference on the air flow in the cockpit.

 

[tomshobby]

Hi tdskip,

I got them from Moss https://www.mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=29613

This pic shows how I installed them. I also have new weather striping that I will cut to fit around the mounting brackets.

 

[tdskip]

Ah - cool. I missed those in the catalog. Do they snap in place or did you have to drill?

 

[tomshobby]

They just slip over the seam and then tighten the set screws.

 

[martx-5]

Are you putting this water pump together yourself?? I used to rebuild water pumps (among other things) for a living. I notice that you have what's called a unitized seal. You can tell by trying to put the seal over the impeller side of the shaft. If it doesn't slide right on, it's unitized, and there is an interference fit between the seal and the shaft. They are very good, but you need the proper tooling to set the stack height when you press the housing onto and into the seal. If the stack height is too loose, you can get leaks, and if it's too tight, it will wear very quickly. There's also a good chance that you will mess up the seal if not done properly.

Also, is the pulley and impeller original?? There is a prescribed interference fit between the shaft and those two items. Very often when the pump is taken apart, you will lose the fit, especially with cast iron. When we rebuilt pumps with integral shaft bearing assemblies we used bearings with a .002" oversize shaft to ensure a tight enough interference fit. That bearing looks like an FAG. There should be a "W" or "WK" and four other digits. If the first digit is a "2", it's a standard size shaft, if it's a "4" (or possibly "3") it's an oversize shaft.

 

[tomshobby]

Hi Art,

Understand about the stack height and have it covered so I will end up within the correct range for this particular seal and at the recommended seal height within that range to get optimal life from the seal and a reliable sealing.

I also measured the bores before ordering the bearing.

Your experience and part source knowledge could have saved a lot of search time. Too bad I did not know you were out there sooner.

 

[martx-5]

That's great Tom that you have the seal situation under control. Just out of curiosity, what are the letters and numbers on the end of the shaft you show in the picture?? I can't quite make them out. I have put alot of water pumps together with standard sized shafts, and not run into any problems, but we had hub & pulley testers that actually tried to pull the hub from the shaft. If it didn't move or come off, it was OK. I know you have no way of knowing how much force it will take to press the pulley and impeller on, but it should take a minimum of 1500-2000 lbs. On the impeller side, we just monitored a hydraulic pressure gauge to see how much force was required to press on the impeller. When we used oversized shafts, there wasn't all this concern, as we knew everything would be tight. What we didn't need was water pumps flying apart on customers cars. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cryin.gif

I'm sure you'll be fine with this rebuild, and am looking forward to your write-up and pictures.

 

[vettedog72]

Tom,
What ever you do to the pump has got to be better than the horror stories we have read about the new pumps on the market. Too bad matrix-5 does not rebuild them any more; it sounds like he would do a quality job and save us all a lot of problems.

 

[YankeeTR]

Tom,
What ever you do to the pump has got to be better than the horror stories we have read about the new pumps on the market. Too bad matrix-5 does not rebuild them any more; it sounds like he would do a quality job and save us all a lot of problems.

what he said...

 

[Brosky]

Ya know, you'd think that I guy with that kinda knowledge, would just whup up a few dozen of those bad boys and sell em off to the good ole boys here at BCF...............

I know that I'd be happy to buy one.

I'd be happy to see him make a profit doing it too!!

 

[martx-5]

Boy, I'd love to help you guys out with rebuilt pumps. But, as green as the grass may look on the other side of the fence, that's not always the case. Even if I used arbor presses instead of hydraulic, I'd still have to make up tooling, I'd need some cleaning and blasting or glass beading equipment. Then I would need parts. Basically, there are two size bearings...5/8"" and 3/4". But, every different pump has different length shafts on the impeller side and the hub/pulley side. In order to get good pricing on bearings, you need to buy them by the box. Fifty in a box for the 5/8" size, 30 for the 3/4" size. Even if I only did 10 or so differnet kinds of pumps, that would be 500 bearings to stock. Seals in bulk come in 200-500 piece boxes depending on who you get them from, and there are about five or six common sizes.

Oh, I suppose I could buy in smaller quantities, and pass the costs onto the customer, but then the rebuilt pump would cost more then new. A few of you would opt for that, but most people wouldn't.

Besides that, I've rebuilt thousands of water pumps. Sometimes a thousand in a week, and still had trouble making money. You know, been there...done that...The last thing I need at this point in my life is to go back to rebuilding water pumps.

 

[tomshobby]

Hi Art,

The word is that now after-market re-builders and suppliers have to buy 3,000 to 5,000 pieces of each size they buy. For some reason they are being squeezed out of the market.

But if you get interested send me a PM. The supplier I got my seal and bearing from is a good source and his prices are very good.

I have to say that I would have gladly paid $100 or more for a quality rebuilt than for the new nearly $80 one that I ended up with.