ModelB water pump doesn't fit...

[m5655]

First off, greetings. First posting.

On to business. I inherited a beautiful 1930 Fodor from my uncle, and I've been slowly working through a few things. the first was to clean out the coolant system, during which time I decided to replace a very leaky water pump.

The Car has a Model B engine (large C stamped on the head), with a water pump that has a three hole mount. I went onto macs and bought a Water Pump, Leakless Design with Stainless Steel Shaft, Model A Ford with 4-Cylinder Model B Engine (28-26135-1 (Mac's Part# B-8501-LL)).

When I tried to mount it last weekend, I found that the body of the pumpt wouldn't quite make it all the way to the block. further investigate revealed that, with the impeller fully inside the pump, the shoulder of the impeller (near the end of the shaft) extended out about 1/4" further than the one that I pulled off.

A friend indicated that this sounded familiar, and that he thought some pumps would require a little machining on the engine side of the impeller to reduce the length of the shoulder slightly.

Is this common? is it possible I bought the wrong pump? I'll follow up with more details in the differences in a measurements tomorrow when I get a chance to get into the garage.

[1930artdeco]

Welcome, and yes and no to your question. I put a leakless on my car and I had to grind some of the shaft off for it to fit inside of the head. I took a bit too much off so be very careful. But the replacement that I just put on went right in and fit perfectly.

Be careful with Mac's parts. I have no direct dealings with them but other people have and they have somewhat of a bad rep.

Mike

[Chuck Sea/Tac]

You may have a B engine, but the head with a C doesn't mean the block is a B. Look below the front of the valve cover, and there will be a fuel pump, or a block off plate. If not, then it's an A engine, with a later head.

[jkeesey]

Some of the new leakless pumps come with the extended shaft which is 1/4" longer on the impeller side. Just grind off enough to make it fit.

[western77]

A new water pump on a B or A has to be fit to that engine head. The stop on each head varies according with wear. There should be aboud .015-.020 of an inch clearance between the end of the water pump shaft and the head stop. If you look inside the head you can see where the pump shaft hits the head stop.JB

[J Franklin]

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The clearance is provided by the gasket. Grind the shaft to 0.000 clearance without the gasket and then install with the gasket, about .006. If the shaft has too much clearance the shaft will move too much and you will have a leak at the packing.

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi m5655,

Welcome. All excellent advice above.

FWIW:

Just in case you are anticipating working on a Model A & replacing even a few parts with new reproduction parts, it is never a bad idea to purchase a Dremel Tool with cut off wheels, grinding stones, etc. attachments.

Some repro parts fit better after custom fitting.

[m5655]

Wow. Thanks for all the comments!

as I said, I'll do a proper measurement this weekend, I should not that it didn't look as though the shaft itself was any longer, but instead that the "shoulder" of the impeller, extended a little further out on the shaft. Including a picture for reference.