WATERPUMP REBUILDING

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1949 – 1953 FORD FLATHEAD WATERPUMP REBUILDING

This informative article is written for the working man, or woman, who enjoys repairing and restoring things by using their hands and ingenuity. There are a lot of pictures in this article but I wanted to make sure I covered every aspect of pump rebuilding. Lets start out with identifying the pumps. In early ‘49, Ford introduced a water pump that only lasted a few months. It had one internal bronze bearing, one outer roller bearing, a smaller impeller shaft, .591 dia., flat pulley and oil port on the top of the housing. If you have an early ‘49 pump do not rebuild it. You will spend half your life trying to find a rebuild kit for it. You can get the bearings anywhere on the Internet, BUT…. the impeller is impossible to find due to the smaller shaft hole. It is best to rebuild late ‘49 and later pumps. Rebuild kits run from $22-$30, 2009 prices. Follow pictures down left column.

Left=early Right=late

After the bearing shaft assembly is out, drive the shaft down 1/8-1/4 inch down to loosen it from the pulley.

Oil port on early ‘49 pumps

Shaft driven up a bit.

Late ‘49 pump

Drive it back down with heat to remove it. IMPORTANT: Use wood here or the pulley will break.

WARNING: Do NOT try any kind of puller to remove the pulley. If you do, this is what will happen. Also, do not drop your good pulley on the ground (concrete) either, it will shatter into pieces.

(Looking at back of pump) Now for the fun part, installing new parts. Some kits come with a brass slinger. This must go on first as shown. Use a deep well socket and tap on or use press.

Here is the first key and secret to rebuilding your pump. You MUST remove this front bearing clip.

Press the seal on the shaft using a tight fitting deep well socket and watch the clearance specs provided with the kit. (see pic below).

Use a special snap ring pliers or….

Special Ford tool (bent .30 cent screw driver).

Use a large socket to press the body of the seal into the pump housing. Again watch the seal clearance specs.

Picture of the snap ring loose (look between pulley and housing for a dark ring). NOTE: if the pump has already been rebuilt and someone did not put the original clip back on with the ears, you could be in trouble. If that’s the case, massive pressure on the press could pop the newer clip out. Another option would be to pull the pulley, possible breaking it and then removing the clip. Pulleys are cheap, around $9.

Picture of the front of the pump with bearing retainer clip installed.

Pressing shaft assembly out the front of the pump AFTER front clip is removed. Use bolts or other methods to support pump.

Install pulley as shown. Press on the shaft only. End of shaft will be flush with pulley when finished.

Drive down on the shaft only. The impeller my break but since we are installing a new one its not a problem.

Press the impeller on by pressing on the shaft. Clearance between the impeller fins and housing is .030 and .040 inch so be careful and press slowly. Congratulations, you are finished and had the satisfaction of doing the job yourself for very little money.

Some times the impeller will join to the impeller shaft. If that is the case, grind it down or drill and break it off. You cant push it thru because of the seal housing will get jammed up in the pump housing.

.030-.040 clearance

Drill three holes into the impeller and break it.

Impeller pressed on shaft

Strike the impeller with a chisel to break it.

THE END

Some of the impeller shafts are hardened and some are not. You can see this one is not and you can drill holes into either end to relieve the press fits of the pulley and impeller.