1934 Ford Waterpumps
- Thread starter Fartman
- Start date
1938 Woody Cape Cod
Senior Member
Great pumps I have them on my '35
Why would you want to ruin perfectly good pumps by putting bearings in them?? There are still pumps working that are 80 years old and very few have bushing problems.
I have seen thousands of bushing pumps that Skip tore apart with only a few that the bushings were worn. The problems are with seals and dirt is what causes them to leak.
Skip puts high flow impellers and modern seals in all he rebuilds.
When a bearing go's bad it's usually time for a tow truck. Adding water to a leaking bushing pump will get you home. Skip also has numerous pumps in his junk pile that were converted to bearings. Some bearing customers reported having bearings replaced 2 or 3 times before sending them to Skip. Skip won't repair them because of his warrantee. In over 20 years he has NEVER charged to repair the few pumps that he rebuilt that failed. G.M.
I have seen thousands of bushing pumps that Skip tore apart with only a few that the bushings were worn. The problems are with seals and dirt is what causes them to leak.
Skip puts high flow impellers and modern seals in all he rebuilds.
When a bearing go's bad it's usually time for a tow truck. Adding water to a leaking bushing pump will get you home. Skip also has numerous pumps in his junk pile that were converted to bearings. Some bearing customers reported having bearings replaced 2 or 3 times before sending them to Skip. Skip won't repair them because of his warrantee. In over 20 years he has NEVER charged to repair the few pumps that he rebuilt that failed. G.M.
Fartman
Member
I never said anything was wrong with my bushes in my pumps,both pumps are cracked and so i rebuilt another 2 that i had with a rebuild kit and they are very hard to turn.which in turn will use horse power to turn them.i have a set with bearings in them and they move very freely and will not use up excess hp to turn them.this is why i want pumps with bearings.
DON"T put them on being hard to turn. The bushings don't wear in you will only gall the shaft. Yon need to mic the shaft and lets say it measures EXACTLY .500 then you need to ream it to .501, then with a dead sharp reamer to .5015. The sharp reamer only takes a little off so we know the hole is the exact size and the sharp reamer don't smear the bushing material and close the pours cutting off lubrication. you can feel a slight sideward motion between the shaft and bushings when the shaft is inserted dry. Put a little oil on the shaft and there is no side motion and it feels like a perfect bearing. You don't grease the pumps like king pins, only a few squirts of low melt grease once or twice a year. The grease melts into a heavy oil and saturates the bushing lubricating the shaft. The shaft NEAVER touches the bushing, it rides on a film of oil. If the fan belt is pulled up with a crow bar and the belt is like a banjo string then the oil will be squeezed out and the bushing will get egg shaped. Attached is the fan belt adjustment and a 36 pump from a friend of mines fathers car from years ago. He had it and gave it to me. Another of the old folk lore stories is proven wrong with this picture. It was said that when the water leaked it was bad bushings, WRONG. This one never leaked, wore through the bushing into the housing. He finally changed water pumps because the back of the pulley was scraping the front casting of the pump. This made so much noise he changed the pump. The old original pump seals work fairly good but the modern seals are much improved. G.M.
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quickchange34
Well-known member
If bearings were not the answer over bushings in water pumps, all of the pumps made today would still be using bushings. Also the bearings are sealed so the grease stays in and the dirt stays out. Much less friction over a bushings.Get pumps with bearings and the modern seals. Even Ford had bearings in their later pumps.
Before you make statements like this you should know the real facts.
1949 to 1953 pumps were designed for bearings. The snout is longer which keeps the water away from the face of the bearing seal. As shown on the 1949 shaft and bearing which operated well over 50 years and still turns free. All water pump seals leak, the carbon surface hydroplanes on the seat and runs on a film of water. Water pump lubricants only purpose is to lubricate the seal and seat. Run dry the seal would get extremely hot and burn up in a short time. The picture of the 49-53 shaft and bearing shows where the normal seal water leak has removed shaft material over time in the leak area but the water is slung off before most of it hits the face of the bearing seal, as I said this bearing still turns free. The other bearing and shaft is out of a 37 to 48 pump that was made for bushings. This bearing was run a much shorter time then the 49 one. You can see the water covers the entire shaft and the face of the bearing seal. Rust on the shaft works in under the seal lip and makes the surface ruff and allows the seal to leak. This shaft is bound up tight and don't move at all. With this condition you can't drive the car without removing the fan belt and you can't travel very far like that. If you look close at the modern pump seal Skip uses it has a small width on the surface that runs on the seat. This has less friction and generates less heat. I measured the height where it rides on one after 10,000 miles and could hardly detect any wear. He also uses hard SS shafts in the bushing pumps, the seal spring and it's hardware so rust isn't a factor. G.M.
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Before you make statements like this you should know the real facts.
1949 to 1953 pumps were designed for bearings. The snout is longer which keeps the water away from the face of the bearing seal. As shown on the 1949 shaft and bearing which operated well over 50 years and still turns free. All water pump seals leak, the carbon surface hydroplanes on the seat and runs on a film of water. Water pump lubricants only purpose is to lubricate the seal and set. Run dry the seal would get extremely hot and burn up in a short time. The picture of the 49-53 shaft and bearing shows where the normal seal water leak has removed shaft material over time in the leak area but the water is slung off before most of it hits the face of the bearing, as I said this bearing still turns free. The other bearing and shaft is out of a 37 to 48 pump that was made for bushings. This bearing was run a much shorter time then the 49 one. You can see the water covers the entire shaft and the face of the bearing seal. Rust on the shaft works in under the seal lip and makes the surface ruff and makes the seal leak. This shaft is bound up tight and don't move at all. With this condition you can't drive the car without removing the fan belt and you can't travel very far like that. If you look close at the modern pump seal Skip uses it has a small width on the surface that runs on the seat. This has less friction and generates less heat. I measure the height where it rides on one after 10,000 miles and could hardly detect any wear. He also uses hard SS shafts in the bushing pumps, the seal spring and it's hardware so rust isn't a factor. G.M.