The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Water pump working?

Well - I got her fired after who know how long she sat. It's a wonder what new points, coil, condenser, plugs, wires, cap and rotor will do. One shot of ETHER down the carb and she started idling pretty smooth.

After about two minutes, a loud squeal developed from the front end of the engine. I shut her down and re-fired. A couple of minutes later, same squeal.

I thought water pump, so I shut her down and pulled the pump. The impeller looks fine and the thing turns o.k. so my question is -

How do I know my water pump is o.k.???

Was the squeal coming from the OLD belt and rusty fan pully?

IDEAS?!?!

Thanks!

Dave

Hmmm, seems like a water pump works or it doesn't. I've never had a water pump that worked only a little bit. I currently have a bearing that's on it's way out on my 292. There's a little bit of play and it makes a little noise. Stuff that spins definitely wears out. My heater blower motor is the opposite of your water pump. It makes a horrendous whining noise for about a minute after turning on then goes away. When I pulled it to check, of course it spins nicely with the five finger check. Try a stethoscope or styrofoam cup with a couple feet of garden hose to narrow it down. And obviously steer clear of the fan blades when troubleshooting.

Try running it for a few seconds without the belt on to see if it is internal or pump/gen.

You can also shoot some wd-40 on the belt and see if that quiets it down. Usually when a water pump fails coolant oozes out of the drain hole on the bottom side of the shaft hub.

squirting water on a belt while running will tell you if it is the belt or pump. Typically if the bearing in the pump starts to go bad it will take out the seal and the pump will leak. This isn't always true. With the pump installed try moving the fan blade tips to see if there is excessive play. With the pump off see if there is any wobble in the main Shaft. There should be very little to no play in the shaft. Good luck and let us know what you find.

Well thanks to the idea from "Pre '68 Dave", I took another look and found the generator was not turning. So I removed the GEN and pulled the back off. It looks like the armature is gunked up within thge field coils, or the front end bearing? is froze? I haven't yet got the pull off as it is 15/16ths, the one socket I don't (yet) have.

Any ideas or tips on what to do or NOT to do when working to free the GEN shaft? Can I spray it with PB Blaster or Wonder Drug 40?

Thanks!

I got it apart. Sprayed WD40 all over and things started to spin. Getting the pulley off was the big free-up move.

Upon re-assembly, the pulley seems to tighten things up a liitle too much. The shaft spins freely until I tighten the pulley nut down on the lock washer. Is there a torque spec on the pulley nut? Or should there be a bushing/spacer in there?

Thanks!

There should be a spacer between the front bearing and the pulley. It looks like a ring, about 1/8" thick or a little thicker. When the pulley nut tightens, this should allow the front bearing to spin freely without any drag between the armature and the front housing. Be sure to polarize the generator after reinstslling it, by taking the wire off the "Arm" terminal on the voltage regualtor, and touchung it to the "Bat" terminal briefly.
Jerry