The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop water pump question

So my h20 pump is leaking out the weep holes. It is off a 54' Chevy 1/2 ton in line 261, the original engine was a 235, but I believe the same pump went back on, there is only 1/2 clearance before the fan. So anyway I took the pump to NAPA, nobody makes the pump although I can get one from ChevyDuty or someone for roughly $70 plus shipping, or I can take the h2o pump my guy at NAPA got which is exactly the same except the shaft is a little longer than I need, then I can take it to a machine shop around here, Megis Machine shop, they can cut the shaft to match the original and press the pulley base back on. Good Idea? Bad Idea?

ever in search of knowledge

rje

That's what I did with my water pump. I
have a '57 235 in a '53 half ton. I cut the
shaft down in length and used the pulley off
an earlier 216/235 water pump. Works good.

I just wanted to add some more information. I had to think about how I had
done it. What you can do is measure the distance that the pulley is from old pump, then press old pump out of pulley and press pulley on new pump same distance then cut off
shaft flush with front of pulley. I used a 4 inch grinder and cut it off. Mount pulley in
vise. The pulley's mass and vise will dissipates the heat, you can also put a wet rag around pulley also. You could try hacksaw but I think shaft is hardened.

Thanks, I feelin' pretty good about this, I'll let you know how it goes!!!

ever in search in knowledge
rje