MAC'S leakless is leaking...not happy...

Stillrunners

Stillrunners

Member
went ahead and spent the extra monie for the "new" leakless B/C head water pump...with another buck or two to get it here for this weeks outing....not happy it didn't fit without a little fileing of the end and it's leaking...or dripping....they say finger tight on the nut....damn it....
 
Well since I do not purchase from Specialized/Macs, I cannot comment on who manufactured your water pump however there are a couple of things to note. The reason you had to file the end of the shaft was because these units' shafts are made slightly oversized to compensate for worn cylinder heads. I don't find this to be a big hassle but you would have needed to use water pump shims to eliminate the grinding.

Now the real question is, under the nut on some units, there is a ceramic seal that rides against the shaft. And the nut on some units makes no difference whether it is tight, --or missing because it is the housing that has been modified and where the seal is located. So the real qustion is, do you think any damage occured to your unit during the grinding/fitting operation, --or, is it possible they just packaged the wrong unit and sent you one that uses packing? If so, a loose (or finger tight) packing nut could indeed cause a leak. I realize your frustration since they are not the easiest to replace when you are in a hurry.
 
not to highjack the thread but last week I took my water pump apart because it was making some noise. First I was lucky because the fan (which is a steel fan that bolts to the hub had 2 cracks) but the water pump front bearing was not stock, it had 2 sealed bearings with a spacer in between and a locking ring holding it all in. I was really impressed with the set up and was wondering if anyone knows who builds this water pump. the real seal used a packless seal in the nut. thank for any info. and the noise I believe was the rear of the shaft rubbing the inside of the head so I installed a collar on the front of the shaft and no more noise.
 
Mike V. Florida said:
Yea, call the vendor unless you think the purposely ripped you off give them a chance to fix it.
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There's just no need, other than "behind the keyboard aggression syndrome" , to assume the vendor was trying to rip off the customer. Mac's is a pretty big outfit and not likely to have a business model based on rip offs.

The problem could be with the manufacture of the part, installation issues, as mentioned damage during modification, incorrect part shipped by accident or probably some other causes we haven't thought of.

So let's calmly wait until Stillrunners does what he should have done in the first place-call Mac's and see if the problem can be fixed. It does no good to ***** about it here at this time, although Brent has,as usual, offered some good insight. Let's just put away the hanging ropes until we have a bit of real information and not just speculation. Ah, the drama...
 
5window said:
There's just no need, other than "behind the keyboard aggression syndrome" , to assume the vendor was trying to rip off the customer. Mac's is a pretty big outfit and not likely to have a business model based on rip offs.

The problem could be with the manufacture of the part, installation issues, as mentioned damage during modification, incorrect part shipped by accident or probably some other causes we haven't thought of.

So let's calmly wait until Stillrunners does what he should have done in the first place-call Mac's and see if the problem can be fixed. It does no good to ***** about it here at this time, although Brent has,as usual, offered some good insight. Let's just put away the hanging ropes until we have a bit of real information and not just speculation. Ah, the drama...
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Exactly!! When a person has bad dealings with a vendor the first thing to do is to contact them. If there is no reasonable resolution then go online and complain for the world to see. Sarcasm is hard to read.
 
Mike V. Florida said:
Exactly!! When a person has bad dealings with a vendor the first thing to do is to contact them. If there is no reasonable resolution then go online and complain for the world to see. Sarcasm is hard to read.
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Yes, it is. One of my business consultants once pointed out that 93% of a message's information is lost when it is written, not spoken with the speaker visible to you. Tone, inflection,body language are all lost. Think how much information and knowledge we'd get if the FB involved video and audio. maybe with the next update,eh?-
 
okay...little update....this was manufactured out of country -Europe - and not a China product - reguardless - I guess I would be the only one on earth that has an expectation - that money well spent - would get you a good product - forgive me and the little slam on MAC's...comparing the orginal aganist the remanufacture - how can they be that far off ?...there is only so much room inside the head...today I removed the plug fitting and installed a grease fitting to apply grease to the seal area next to the head...as was directed....think it might work....installed catch can for overnight drips or not....oh...and I'm still learning....
 
I think we have to set aside the notion that "Made in the USA" would solve all of our problems. Have you seen/read of the general attitude of the US worker lately?

Beyond that, you,indeed, have a reasonably expectation that a major vendor would sell a product that would/should work out of the box-without major adaptations on the buyers part. I can see having to tweak sheet metal with all the changes that have or could occur over the years, but a cast/forged part should be rock solid and duplicated as such.

So, big question, what did Mac's say? At what point will you have altered your pump until it cannot be returned?
 
Is the pump leaking from the seal or is it leaking from the joint between the pump and the head. When I rebuilt my waterpump with a leakless kit and refitted it, it leaked. On closer inspection, it was not leaking from the pump, but the mount area. I removed the pump, removed a small piece of rust that must have fallen between the gasket and head as the pump was fitted, refitted the pump and it hasn't leaked yet. It was a loose piece that was trapped, I could see the scar in the gasket where it was trapped. A second new gasket was for the refit.
 
I agree with Glenn, that no pump is permanently leakless. Even a modern pump with O-rings and a ceramic seal often start leaking after a while.

I rebuilt my water pump 15 years ago and installed it 5 years ago and it hasn't leaked one drop yet. I haven't adjusted the brass packing nut after the first week of running. I rebuilt it totally original, except to add the locking collar to the front of the shaft. I've only greased the rear bushing twice in 5 years, with one pump each time. I found that adding grease to the lead packing rope as I installed it is the secret to stopping the drips. The only thing I will do differently on all future pump rebuilds is to add the rear brass bushing with the double lip seal in the rear of the bushing. This will help keep any grease from entering the coolant. Two things I think helped add to the success of my leakless pump is the use of antifreeze and a generator. For those that use an alternator, which needs a much tighter belt, this puts extra strain on the water pump and bearings.
 
I dont realy see the big deal let it leek who cares just top her off after a long day or two drive and be good for anouther 48 hours of driveing time
 
I don't think Still Runner is being out of line to say, "Hey, I ordered a LEAKLESS pump, and it immediately was leaking when I put it on my car"

The arguments of, "let it leak," or "they all leak after a while" don't make much sense to me when you buy an item that claims to be leakless and isn't in it's brand new state.

So, Perhaps you go on your weekend drive. If you want to avoid watery mess all over your firewall, take a coke can and some bailing wire or zip ties, cut the can open and make a cover for your packing nut area.

Then remove after your drive and return for an exchange, telling them that it didn't even make one trip without leaking.

And yes, they make the shafts longer on purpose, and are often not out of the box bolt in replacements. I had the fun of trying to tighten one up once and breaking the ear off because the new longer shaft was jamming in the head.
 
I put one of James Rupert's "Extreme Duty Leakless" water pumps on my rig. Bolted right up with no mods needed. Only have a couple hours on it, but so far -- no leaks!
 
I installed a "Leakless" water pump from Mac's about a six weeks ago. No modifications necessary and no leaks yet.

I did use permatex on the gasket.
 
second update - pumped in some gease to the inner seal area - as MAC's suggested....kinda wonder why that's not done prior to shipping...holding for now -
 
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