My water pump failed again, revisited.

["miltdanfoss" <dan.foss@xxxx>]

Thought I'd share my experience this weekend.

After rebuilding the engine because of a bad water pump, the darn 
thing failed again on the first day I actually drove it anywhere 
after the rebuild.

When I took the failed water pump out this weekend, the pulley would 
not rotate (and by the way, I only removed the belt, the throttle 
barrell assembly and the intake plenum 'w pipe'). 

I saw on www.specialtauto.com a picture showing how to tell if the 
pulley was pushed on far enough and sure enough it was out 3/4 of an 
inch.

When I took the back of the pump off, I found that the impeller wheel 
had indeed been rubbing the back of the water pump case, and in fact 
there was quite a bit of damage to both the back and the impeller 
wheel too.

This rubbing must have transferred the heat to the seal, and caused a 
failure. I figure I sped up the process by having the belt very 
tight, which caused the pulley and impeller to try to align, causing 
it to push into the backing.

I think I'll let SpecialTAuto put on the pulley this time. Would have 
saved me this fun experience!!


Dan in Cocoa (3932)