Water pump woes

stickshift

stickshift

Senior Member
I took my truck out for a drive and it started making a whining noise. I lifted the hood and saw that a caged bearing moved forward on the shaft. Is this something I can just move back? No coolant is leaking.
 

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I think you can return it to where it belongs. Clean it all up first and use a dab of JB-Weld on the keeper to make it stay.
 
Unless I’m mistaken, that’s the bearing from the front (nose) of the pump, not from the cartridge (rear) of the pump. There should be a keeper and a felt seal between the bearing and the opening at the middle of the pump. My recollection is that there is a lip in the casting to hold that keeper from doing what this one did, and you drive that keeper in from the front. If that lip is gone you’ll need to do as J Franklin says and hold it in place somehow. Hopefully that squealing you heard was not the bearing or keeper binding on the shaft, in which case you have bigger issues. Take the fan belt loose before you try to reposition everything.
 
I think you're going to need a new water pump. My guess is that the casting at the rear of the cage bearing broke or wore out allowing the bearing to slide back. I would check the backside of the fan hub to see if the fan hub was riding on the water pump.

Red
 
Gentlemen, this all makes sense. It was getting dark when I took the photo and I didn't look close enough to see that the bearing slid from the front. I recently replaced my old original fan with an aluminum fan. After replacing it, I noticed a little play (in and out) maybe 1/8 inch. I pulled the water pump and adjusted the shaft collar for no play. Something must have put pressure on the bearing to move it out of place. This is a "B" water pump as you probably noticed and I read in another thread that they are getting hard to find. Now that it's daylight, I'll have another look at the pump. Thanks for the replies.
 
stickshift said:
Gentlemen, this all makes sense. It was getting dark when I took the photo and I didn't look close enough to see that the bearing slid from the front. I recently replaced my old original fan with an aluminum fan. After replacing it, I noticed a little play (in and out) maybe 1/8 inch. I pulled the water pump and adjusted the shaft collar for no play. Something must have put pressure on the bearing to move it out of place. This is a "B" water pump as you probably noticed and I read in another thread that they are getting hard to find. Now that it's daylight, I'll have another look at the pump. Thanks for the replies.
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Just for the record, generally when that happens, it is because the fan belt was WAY over-tightened.
 
Yes,
The felt retainer pushed out letting the bearing slide back. I was able work everything back in and put some Loctite 680 on the retainer and used a flare-nut wrench over the shaft to tap back in. I think I may have pumped too much grease in the front of the pump when I was replacing the fan and the pressure loosened the cupped retainer. All looks good now. Thanks for the comments.
 
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