Well since it's been awhile since I reported on
the water pump rebuilding effort I've been undertaking
on Mr. Riley, maybe this is a good time to catch you
all up.
I finally got all the parts back from MSI after
they welded up all the cracks, PO-induced holes to
plumb dysfunctional heaters, etc. As usual they
did a wonderful job, in fact you cannot even see where
they welded up the bypass pipe ! All new, I set about
painting all the components that look painted in my
manual a nice green enamel.
Some of the gaskets I was able to buy since they
are the same as on a TC, but many others I had to make.
My employer graciously offered up a perfect-sized O-ring to
seal the bypass pipe, and all new Whitworth hardware
came from O'Connors. Finally a few weekends ago I was
ready to put it all together.
The first thing that was in order was to assemble
the shaft-bearings-seals, etc., into the nose of the pump.
I'd bunged up the threads a bit on both ends of the shaft
when pressing off the impeller & pulley, so I spent quite
a bit of time cleaning them up with a thread file so the
nuts went on smoothly. Finally it was all sorted out &
fit together like new. Next came time to fit the
impeller. The impeller is held in place with a
woodruff key and a very thin brass aircraft nut. Well
the aircraft nut had long since lost it's threads, and
the only thing O'Connors had was a normal thickness
nickel plated whitworth aircraft nut. When I put this
on it was quickly apparent that the nut was too thick &
the locking portion never even contacted the shaft
threads. In order to make this work I had to carefully
cut the nut in two, effectively creating the world's
narrowest aircraft nut. A glob of Loctite for
insurance, and it all fit perfectly.
With all back together it was too pretty to put back on
that dirty old engine, so I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up
the front of the engine compartment. Finally I realized if I was
going to go any further I would soon be disassembling the entire
car, so I put the pump back on. Now the only thing left to do is
to make up two 3.5" long stainless steel 5/16" whitworth studs to
hold the water rail on, and the water pump is done. But then I have
to do the oil line banjos, front u-joint, check that leaky front
wheel cylinder .....
mo' later-
dstone@sc9.intel.com
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