Any of ya'll rebuild your own water pumps?

[Snoots]

FLOWKOOLER

Nuff said.

 

[wanderinthru]

Back in the 70's I worked for Pontiac and they wanted us to rebuild water pumps , it didn't turn out well . We broke more housings then we repaired plus rusted housings leaked . I tried to get a kit for an aluminum housing last year and could not find a kit to rebuild it .

I've never taken one apart to know (yet, could be doing that now....but, I'm lazy) are the seals and bearings such an odd size that they can't be found outside of a water pump kit?

 

[SirRobyn0]

Thanks! Can I ask what you did wrong that caused them to leak?

On GM pumps there is the gasket or the front seal, but it's the front seal that typically gives on a rebuilt water pump, if you miss the shaft being bent or pitted, or the seal doesn't fit in good enough and the pressure pushes it out. But the one that really stands out is one of the guys working for me at the time rebuilt a pump on a system that was neglected, the back plate was pitted from rust, he cleaned it up, it looked ok so he put it back together, on the test drive it started spraying right through a pin hole in the plate. Now I had to pay the guy twice to do the job and buy a new pump, so we lost our ass on that job.

You also have to keep in mind that I come from a shop prospective, even if everything goes well on the rebuild, if it takes a guy an hour to rebuild a pump and he makes $40 an hour or I can get a new A/C delco pump for $46 with a 2 year warranty. Or I can have that guy off that job an hour earlier and on to something else that makes money. I kind of live my life like that though, time is valuable even on my own time. I could spend that hour in the house drinking instead of in the shop lol.

Seriously though you obviously have an interest so I'd encourage to rebuild one and you'll learn all the details of the inside of the pump, but don't fool yourself into thinking your saving money or anything like that.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I've never taken one apart to know (yet, could be doing that now....but, I'm lazy) are the seals and bearings such an odd size that they can't be found outside of a water pump kit?

When we did it at the shop we stocked kits for common pumps we saw. You can get seals of all sorts of sizes if you try hard enough, the bearing if I remember right, and keep in mind we did rebuilds on multiple makes, and stopped years like 30 years ago, but I think it was just a metal insert I doubt you'd find that outside of a kit.

 

[wanderinthru]

On GM pumps there is the gasket or the front seal, but it's the front seal that typically gives on a rebuilt water pump, if you miss the shaft being bent or pitted, or the seal doesn't fit in good enough and the pressure pushes it out. But the one that really stands out is one of the guys working for me at the time rebuilt a pump on a system that was neglected, the back plate was pitted from rust, he cleaned it up, it looked ok so he put it back together, on the test drive it started spraying right through a pin hole in the plate. Now I had to pay the guy twice to do the job and buy a new pump, so we lost our ass on that job.

You also have to keep in mind that I come from a shop prospective, even if everything goes well on the rebuild, if it takes a guy an hour to rebuild a pump and he makes $40 an hour or I can get a new A/C delco pump for $46 with a 2 year warranty. Or I can have that guy off that job an hour earlier and on to something else that makes money. I kind of live my life like that though, time is valuable even on my own time. I could spend that hour in the house drinking instead of in the shop lol.

Seriously though you obviously have an interest so I'd encourage to rebuild one and you'll learn all the details of the inside of the pump, but don't fool yourself into thinking your saving money or anything like that.

Thank You Sir, this is some of the the information I was looking for. I have my own shop as well, not a car mechanic shop but a general, repair, welding, hydraulic, job shop thingy ish??? Building a set of cow pens for one guy, have another guys chain saw to fix, there are 2 trailers waiting, one on an axle, other on me, a tractor that needs several hydraulic cylinders a radiator and water pump, a paddle scraper that the old tractor has to come off and being set up to pull behind a farm tractor etc, etc. Understand the monetary aspects of the rebuild/replace parts on a job, but some things are getting harder to find, As well as, we now have a pretty good small town parts store 15 miles away the next "good" parts store is 60. In the instance of the water pump for the tractor, it will be a 150 mile round trip to get the water pump. Being how I have a machine shop and the ability to use said machines, I'd as soon spend those 3 hours rebuilding the old part, than driving to get a new one.
That being said Sir, I do appreciate the information, as well as the interest!!

 

[SirRobyn0]

Thank You Sir, this is some of the the information I was looking for. I have my own shop as well, not a car mechanic shop but a general, repair, welding, hydraulic, job shop thingy ish??? Building a set of cow pens for one guy, have another guys chain saw to fix, there are 2 trailers waiting, one on an axle, other on me, a tractor that needs several hydraulic cylinders a radiator and water pump, a paddle scraper that the old tractor has to come off and being set up to pull behind a farm tractor etc, etc. Understand the monetary aspects of the rebuild/replace parts on a job, but some things are getting harder to find, As well as, we now have a pretty good small town parts store 15 miles away the next "good" parts store is 60. In the instance of the water pump for the tractor, it will be a 150 mile round trip to get the water pump. Being how I have a machine shop and the ability to use said machines, I'd as soon spend those 3 hours rebuilding the old part, than driving to get a new one.
That being said Sir, I do appreciate the information, as well as the interest!!

Glad you found it to be useful and, I can see how in house rebuilding could work well for your business.