The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 1953 Chevy 3/4 ton 216ci water pump rebuild kits

I wasn't sure of this goes in the Swap meet section or engine section.... I am looking to see of anybody knows if there are rebuild kits available for my 1953 Chevy 3/4 ton 216ci water pump.

I have searched for this too and came up short
Best I found was a NOS rebuild kit way older than me on eBay
Still in box, I bought it
I was planning to see if I could find the parts individually based on size so that I could post which parts to get from where to make your own rebuild kit

Haven’t done that yet
-s

Places like Jim Carter sell complete water pumps, so parts must be available somewhere. They don't say whether they're new or rebuilt. I suspect the former.
Water Pumps, in my experience aren't that easy for the DIY guy to rebuild.

Most water pumps are new (Chinese ?) castings and not oem and some places want your original core for rebuild which suggest you could get lucky and get a OEM one back

I read a lot of poor reviews about quality
I splurged on the NAPA pump because they claimed it was the best modern new casting and they didn’t want the core
So far it works great on my 216
It doesn’t have same details as the original but it works and fit okay
The pulley is a bit too big And you need to grind a bit to make a clearance for the rivets that hold the fan blades together
Or you could grind the rivets a bit
Either way the fan won’t go flat on many of the repro pumps until you tweak that detail.
-s

There are several parts to a water pump, and only the housing, pulley or fan hub, and sometimes the impeller are re-used during a rebuild. The shaft, bearings, and seal come as a package unit which presses into the housing. Then the impeller and fan hub are pressed into place. The seal is a very oddball design, a spring-loaded "mechanical seal" consisting of a ceramic disc with a carbon ring spinning against it, held together by a stiff spring. The seal is very fragile, and can be damaged during assembly. The shaft/bearing/seal cartridge is the part that's very scarce these days. I'm pretty sure high volume rebuilders probably have a source, but they're pretty secretive about where they're coming from!
Jerry

Its only oddball in the automotive field. It is very common in centrifugal pumps. Mechanical seals are far superior to any type of packing sealing a rotating shaft to a stationary housing. The seals rotating face and stationary face don’t actually touch but instead ride on a thin film of the fluid that they are sealing, in this case antifreeze, so they tend to last a very long time. Most mechanical seal failures are due to worn or failed bearings. I’ve installed many and HRL is right about the carbon rotating face (ring) as being fragile. You also can’t touch it with your bare hands, as the oils in your fingers can also effect it life.

That being said, if I could obtain the rebuild kit, I wouldn’t hesitate in rebuilding the water pump.

Yes, I've done enough industrial maintenance to be familiar with that type of seal. The brass impeller alcohol pumps we ran at Gallo winery used them. Sealing something as thin and volatile as 99.5% pure grain alcohol from the distillery was a real challenge. The brass impellers were for "no spark" operation in case a failed bearing let the impeller touch the cast iron housing of the pump.
Jerry

Thanks all for sharing your knoledge and experience, with much thought, I have decided it would be less of a hassle for me to by new. I sure appreciate all of you that chimed in to help me out. I have found one from Partsgeek that should gwt to me by Monday. we'll see if they send me the correct part. 👴

It was a great question. I have probably 10 old water pumps and like a lot of us, I hate to throw anything out that may still be useful. I was really hoping to hear that there were kits available.

There's a seller on Ebay right now selling a repair kit for the late model 235 low mount water pump- - - - -$65.00 plus shipping, and it's got a whole 30 day warranty! Gotta be a really high quality product, right?
Jerry

TRY your local FLAPS GM 839403--got mine from NAPA--for the 51 5 window..BILL

There's always the option of a professional water pump rebuilder, so don't throw out/scrap your old original cores, they can be rebuilt!

Mike B

Oh boy! sounds like a deal. 😅. I was working on pressing the fan hub/belt pulley off and unfortunatiely the spot welds were not ok with that so the hub that presses onto the spindle and the pulley sepperated in a bit of a metal ripping kind of way. Yep, that one's done. I did try to straighten things out and re- spot welded it but I don't think I'd trust it to last. oh well, I do have the one coming in tomorrow from Partsgeek, hopefully it's right. 🙂

You would probably need to make a press plate that bolts onto that cast iron pulley to avoid damaging the hub as you remove it. Putting pressing force on that thin pulley sheave doesn't sound like a good idea.
Jerry

53&me WHen you go to rebuild your water pump i'm pretty sure the pictures in the service manuel are reversed ! If you find the kits let us know please !

53&me just replied to you--poof its gone ???

mike B why cant we get water pump kits???

soo, Tried to tear down my old water pump and things didn't go so well. the spot welds broke on the pulley to flange and the amount of rust was prety significant so I broke down an baught a "New" waterpump. I never have found a kit that specifically states it is for the 216 pump. I was concidering hitting up my cousin that works at Motion Industries but the pump didn't come apart so well and I wasn't able to get numbers off of my bearings and seal.