Since it's been awhile that I've posted about my
waterpump rebuilding adventures, I thought I'd catch
you up;
For those that've just tuned in, just prior to the
All British Meet at Palo Alto, the water pump on my
1948 Riley RMA began leaking & wobbling. As if I didn't
have enough to work on, I yanked it off with the idea
to fully rebuild it. Just like the Energizer, here it
is a month later, and Still Going.
I finally did receive the new bearings (yes,
Virginia, it uses *bearings) from King Bearing,
with the back one (closest to the impeller) being
sealed. The front one I had to order with a removable
outer race since the original outer race refuses to
come out of the pump housing.
After cleaning up the pump housing, I noticed two
hairline cracks on either side of the grease fitting.
MSI to the rescue, grinding down the cracks & welding
them up. Trouble was, the cracks, (and thus the
welding), went thru to the threaded part where the
fitting screws in, so now we have to mill & re-tap for
the fitting. MSI also saved the day by machining a
delrin spacer plate to match the carbon one I broke
while disassembling the pump.
While waiting for MSI to finish the various
welding, machining, etc. I decided to reassemble
what I could, and so last Sat. I spent the day chasing
threads & making gaskets. Before installing the thermostat
tho', a little voice said to check it out, and lo & behold,
nothing. Abandoning all hope of finding another thermostat
like this one (you've gotta see it to believe it), I
remembered Mike @ O'Connors saying how the housing was
the same as on a TC, and how he just so happens to stock
a replacement that uses a new style thermostat.
Ka-ching $$. I picked this up yesterday, and
*attempted* to fit it last night. W/O using bolts, it
all loose fits into place perfectly. With the bolts,
well, it just doesn't work.
Seems the bottom flange is just a tad too wide to
allow the nuts that hold the adapter plate to the block
to fit, so I spent the better part of the evening
filing & cutting on my brand new TC thermostat housing
to get it to fit. I grew tired of my lack of progress,
and so am applying grinder to said new expensive part
today, in hopes of expediting. More later-
cheers-
dstone@sc9.intel.com
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