Bob Drake water pumps

Your pickup may have originally been set up for a Model B 4 cylinder engine, If it had the V8 there would be mountings on the cross member for a V8 engine. If you use 48 thru 52 F-1 pickup pumps on an 8BA style engine, the type of mounts you have could be used if they were turned upside down but you would likely have to make some new mounts to sanitize your installation anyway. The ones GM shows in his pic are the 37 thru 48 type pumps and they can be used on the 8BA type engine but you have to convert the front of the engine to the early style accessories to do that conversion. The conversion requires a camshaft that works with the crab type distributor too.

The 8BA/8RT type F-1 pickup accessories will work with either a Mercury or truck rear sump pan. These arent hard to locate since so many F series trucks were produced and I still see 49 thru 51 Mercury pans on flea-pay now and then.
 
Interesting. I know this truck originally came with a 4-cylinder. Right now the truck has that '53 engine in it with a front sump pan. I'll probably redo the mounts by welding in new ones. It doesn't look like there is any interference with the engine being front sump, however the truck sits pretty tall as it is.
 
It's usually the crossmember or steering tie rod that has the clearance problems crossing under the engine to connect the two spindles together but the wishbone can also be affected unless yours was split at some time in the past & remounted to right & left frame members. Model As have problems with this clearance stuff but a later pickup may not have so much troubles. With those 50/51 Merc pumps it was lower in the frame than some are mounted but you have to clear the firewall & floorboards too.
 
Are these rebuildable? They look pretty crusty but I'm not sure if that matters.
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Yes Skip will make these better than new with his modifications and turbine impeller. They will pump 110 gallons each in 5 minutes compared to the 65 gallons stock. It looks like they have a grease fitting?? This would indicate 1949. Maybe truck pumps. These are good heavy duty pumps. G.M.
 

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The 1949 Mercury cars had the bushing type pumps but they would be 8CM part number. The OCM part number are sealed bearing pumps. The main casting looks rebuildable. The first parts that usually corrodes away too far in the lower radiator hose connection. I've rebuild a few Merc pumps but most still had a little more impeller left than those pictured do. The impellers are just cast iron so they will corrode away. About the only thing you need for a rebuildable core is the housing. The rest of the parts are replaced anyway.
 
I think one pump may have a small crack on the flange where the hose goes but I could be wrong. I'm sure I can fill it. They don't make any upgraded rebuild kits with stainless shafts and all that, do they?
 
The standard rebuild kits are pretty basic. They come with the shaft & double row bearing assembly, an impeller, a water seal, a slinger ring, and a gasket. If anyone makes stainless steel stuff, I'm not aware of it. Skip Haney has his own design impeller but I think he does the rebuilds himself rather than selling a kit. I've repaired a few housing castings around the water inlet port by just brazzing them up with an oxy/acetylene torch to fill the pitting back in then sand them back to profile with a hand held air powered belt sander. A file will do the job but a die grinder or belt sander is faster as long as the port is fairly close to it's original profile when your done. The hose & clamp will do the rest.

A press in a must and I've made a few tools to aid in pushing parts in and out correctly. A person can use bolts & nuts with lengths to suit to place the housing in a level position for pressing. Always remeber the snap ring on the inside of the bearing bore under the pulley. There is another one down a ways into the bore to locate the bearing properly in the bore too but it is no problem as long as you press the assembly out from the impeller end. If you can't get to the snap ring you have to have a puller that you can use to remove the pulley sheave first. They are usually cast iron and they break easily. Getting the slinger ring in the correct location on the shaft is the most important thing for these pumps in order for the seal to install correctly and get the overall functionality correct. Take note of the original slinger location before you take the core pump appart. It's a good idea to make a gauge or a pressing tool that will stop at the correct loction on the shaft. there are variations of different slinger rings that can make this task a *****.

Skip Haney will rebuild them for you if you don't have all the stuff required to do it yourself.
 
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