Water Pump Leak

kursed30

kursed30

Member
So after flushing out the radiator with vinegar (which I would not do again) I noticed I had a pretty good leak coming from the water pump packing nut. This lead to rusty water being flung into the radiator which then blew back onto everything else. Huge mess to say the least. As for the leak, should I just replace the packing gasket or rebuild the entire water pump? I have tightened that nut down and it still leaks
 
Not sure why a radiator flush would make your pump leak unless it was rusted up. The water that got on the car shouldn't have been rusty after a flush either. Start with just replacing the packing. use the correct packing sold by the model A vendors as it will not score the shaft. Your pump if not as original may have an Oring or lip seal instead of packing so look at it carefully. Add a bit of grease when repacking as it will make things last a lot longer.
 
There is normally no need to remove the old packing if it is well squished and one ring of new packing will fit in the nut . If the pump bearings are worn so you can move the shaft slightly up and down the pump will leak .Check end float too much ahead and astern will cause a leak .I put a small stainless hose clip around the shaft hard up to the nut to stop this . Over many miles the clip has not worn the nut the exuding waterpump grease stops that . Not too much grease it plugs up the rad !!!

John in cool summer evening Suffolk County England .
 
john charlton said:
There is normally no need to remove the old packing if it is well squished and one ring of new packing will fit in the nut . If the pump bearings are worn so you can move the shaft slightly up and down the pump will leak .Check end float too much ahead and astern will cause a leak .I put a small stainless hose clip around the shaft hard up to the nut to stop this . Over many miles the clip has not worn the nut the exuding waterpump grease stops that . Not too much grease it plugs up the rad !!!

John in cool summer evening Suffolk County England .
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I did notice that when the car is running that shaft moves in and out a little bit.
 
This was clean before the vinegar flush
 

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They sell a retainer that when installed, you can’t see, that stops the in and out movement caused from the wear on the *** inside the head.
 
Kursed - I had the same issue, after flushing and using a cooling system cleaner my pump started leaking that I could not fix by tightening up the nut, and then the bearings started howling and greasing did not help. I ended up biting the bullet and replacing it with a new "leakless" pump (silent, leak-free). I will rebuild the original and keep it as a traveling spare. Even if I don't need it there are plenty of stories of folks needing a pump on a tour.

And I echo John C on the amount of grease - when I was younger I overlubed the front bushing (hey, I couldn't see anything coming out) and ended up sending huge amounts of grease forward and into the back recesses of the fan. First start and grease everywhere! Still remember that 50 years later.

JayJay
 
Chuck Sea/Tac said:
They sell a retainer that when installed, you can’t see, that stops the in and out movement caused from the wear on the *** inside the head.
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Actually, if restrained too tight, one wears "grooves" in the packing area of the pump. Recommended is about 0.010 movement.

Most Model A "of age" have the bridge worn in the head (suction eye of the pump) which leaves too much movement. Solutions include drilling & tapping the bridge (or the shaft) for a brass bolt, using the "extended length" water pump shaft (an additional 1/4" gives room to locate the shaft rearwards relative to the impeller), or restraining the front of the pump using a spacer under the fan (normally not seen but windage of the fan to air flow at speed pushes the fan assembly to the rear to hit against this spacer. )

(This fan windage is counter intuitive as at speeds below about 20mph the fan action "pulls" itself into the airflow. Above 20mph the air comes through the fan faster than rotation measures it, and the fan becomes obstructive to air flow.)

The "ultimate" pump is a nice modern solution. You can make one of these yourself. The subject has been discussed on the board.

Joe K
 
I have a seam leak in the top tank seam under the hose connection, it stopped on it's own, but would open back up if I flushed the system ---it leaves similar markings on the fan blade to the OP
 

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When we got our 30 Fordor the seam under the top hose was cracked, and quickly got worse with every drive, almost broke in 2.
We took it to an old mechanic shop who removed it and sent it to a radiator shop. They did a good job of soldering it together and they were supposed to vat and clean it. I guess they did, we're not having overheating issues.

But before the repair water went everywhere. The motor, the firewall, windshield. It was a mess.
 
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Kurt in NJ said:
I have a seam leak in the top tank seam under the hose connection, it stopped on it's own, but would open back up if I flushed the system ---it leaves similar markings on the fan blade to the OP
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I had a very slight leak that would only drip at night, when the radiator was cool. When the radiator was warm it stopped. Drove me nuts trying to find it.

It turned out to be a small crack in my top tank right along the seam.

Ah,, the joys of old cars... :p:p

700rpm said:
OT: replace that fan blade with a new aluminum one before it flies through your hood.
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Or radiator. Then there will be no doubt where the leak is!! :eek:
 
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