MercuryMac
Builder Junky!
I'm sadder and wiser this morning after making a tech article yesterday.
When you rebuild flathead Ford water pumps, you have to have some previous experience, to get those darn things apart. First of all, there is a snapring behind the pulley that has to come out. That's the one that holds the water pump bearing in the housing neck. I have not tried to take the snapring out with the pulley still on, but you will eventually have to take the pulley off, so now is the time to do it. The pulley is shrunk onto the shaft eighty years ago, so it's going to give you grief. It is thin cast iron, also eighty years old, and really stuck onto the shaft. This tech article is about getting the pulley off in one piece. Heat the pulley hub up, but try not to heat the rest of the pulley too much, because the driver that you just made out of a piece of pipe will bend the pulley out of shape if the pulley is red. Place the driver in past the neck of the housing onto the back of the pulley and hammer on the top end of the driver. The pulley might come off, then.
Now with the pulley off, you go around the back side of the pump and heat up the impeller hub. The impeller is thin cast iron, eighty years old, and been immersed in water for ever, so be careful. There is another snapring inside the housing neck, at the back of the bearing that you can't see or feel so you have to drive the bearing and shaft out through the front of the pump housing. So once the impeller is good and hot, put a punch on the shaft end in the middle of the impeller and drive the shaft forwards, out through the impeller and the housing neck. Then you can order new bearing kits, and reverse the procedure. The blue thing that looks like half of a pipe with two funny ends on it, is my pulley driver. --- Good Luck. Oh ya, if I remember right the shaft is grooved to accept the ball bearings so the shaft is the inner race, so the shaft and bearing are one piece and come out together.
When you rebuild flathead Ford water pumps, you have to have some previous experience, to get those darn things apart. First of all, there is a snapring behind the pulley that has to come out. That's the one that holds the water pump bearing in the housing neck. I have not tried to take the snapring out with the pulley still on, but you will eventually have to take the pulley off, so now is the time to do it. The pulley is shrunk onto the shaft eighty years ago, so it's going to give you grief. It is thin cast iron, also eighty years old, and really stuck onto the shaft. This tech article is about getting the pulley off in one piece. Heat the pulley hub up, but try not to heat the rest of the pulley too much, because the driver that you just made out of a piece of pipe will bend the pulley out of shape if the pulley is red. Place the driver in past the neck of the housing onto the back of the pulley and hammer on the top end of the driver. The pulley might come off, then.
Now with the pulley off, you go around the back side of the pump and heat up the impeller hub. The impeller is thin cast iron, eighty years old, and been immersed in water for ever, so be careful. There is another snapring inside the housing neck, at the back of the bearing that you can't see or feel so you have to drive the bearing and shaft out through the front of the pump housing. So once the impeller is good and hot, put a punch on the shaft end in the middle of the impeller and drive the shaft forwards, out through the impeller and the housing neck. Then you can order new bearing kits, and reverse the procedure. The blue thing that looks like half of a pipe with two funny ends on it, is my pulley driver. --- Good Luck. Oh ya, if I remember right the shaft is grooved to accept the ball bearings so the shaft is the inner race, so the shaft and bearing are one piece and come out together.
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