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Martin Cutler
Prolific User
Username: martin_cutler

Post Number: 214
Registered: 7-2007
Posted on Saturday, 03 January, 2015 - 13:03:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Hi guys,

Anybody have a pump that is rebuildable? Have parts to swap, what do you need?

Cheers

Martin
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Mark Taxis
Frequent User
Username: mark_taxis

Post Number: 79
Registered: 4-2007
Posted on Saturday, 03 January, 2015 - 16:43:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Martin
I have a spare pump but it is only in what I would call average condition,needs a good clean up and a new impellor, casing appears to be ok
Mark
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Richard Treacy
Grand Master
Username: richard_treacy

Post Number: 3149
Registered: 4-2003
Posted on Saturday, 03 January, 2015 - 23:12:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Buy a new one in a box with a 2 year warranty. Not a rebuilt old clapper, a brand new one. It A new one will cost you less than doing a rebuild even before the corroded and worn-out impeller breaks during the repair process and even if you price your own labour cost at zero. The days of rebuilding these old pumps is over. When that old reused front flange lets go and takes out your $2,000 radiator matrix as they usually do, you will get the drift. That flange was never intended to be reused and retails at around $400 as a stand-alone item.

If you want a new seal, spindle etc there are many of us who would give them to you free of charge but the risk is all yours and you may save just a few dollars if you are lucky. However, a new impeller as a single item is usually priced above the price of a brand new pump for obvious reasons.

Best buy a new pump good for another 60 years rather than patch a spent one to last you only a year.

RT.
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Bob UK
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 94.197.122.80
Posted on Sunday, 04 January, 2015 - 09:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Holman engineering Ltd Surry UK.

These guys do water pumps with brass impellers.

I have only ever built a hand full of water pumps. Because in general it's cheaper to buy or send to specialist.

Plus if it goes wrong, which none ever did, then it's guaranteed.

To do water pumps needs a press and jigs. It is very easy to break something. This has happened to pumps I have sent away, but the guys always sort it out.

I would always fit new pumps where available.

All the garages I have worked for refuse to rebuild water pumps. They don't want the failure implications.


Richard,
Does the flange burst or just fall off, and is a rad rebuild really $2000. It sounds a bit over the top. Because I reckon $700 or £400.

I once made an adaptor plate so I could fit a mini water pump to a rare engine. I chose mini because a new pump was £6 (1989) and I thought that I might as well use a cheap pump.
It worked fine. It shouldn't have because the clearances were all wrong. The adaptor took a lot of filing.

(Message approved by david_gore)
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Richard Treacy
Grand Master
Username: richard_treacy

Post Number: 3150
Registered: 4-2003
Posted on Sunday, 04 January, 2015 - 13:36:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Two main things go wrong with this type of coolant pump and both are often catastrophic. Nothing new here and it applies to just about any make of motor vehicle out there. The impeller can come loose on the shaft and the pump seizes. Likewise the front flange is only really safe to be pressed on more than once or it too can easily come loose. Either way the fan can hurtle through the radiator matrix. It makes a new pump seem overwhelmingly the preferred choice.

Incidentally, it was quite common practice at the Sydney R-R franchisees to tack a blob of arc weld on the end of the spindle to hold the impeller in place. That was even with a new spindle and impeller.

Consider radiator recores, and I mean excluding removal and refit, new coolant etc. Although just a few years ago a MkVI recore started at $700 (I had the one on my R-Type done in about 2008 for $850), a recore for a MkVI starts at over $1,000 these days. That assumes that the cross-straps and frame are not too badly damaged by a wayward fan. An authentic one can easily cost $2,000.

Parts alone, add on $120 for coolant, about the same for new hoses, somewhat more for a thermostat and $3,000 is fairly close if you are picky or $2,000 if you are not.

Silver Shadows are of course cheaper. Even thermostats are one quarter the price of those for a MkVI and a coolant pump two thirds the price. A friend here had a recore done for his Silver Shadow a few years back at a price of $650 trade. That was after a reconditioned exchange coolant pump let go and ripped the radiator to bits. A few weeks back a workshop nearby paid $1,100 trade price.

The reason ? Radiator recores are in dwindling demand as more and more repairers prefer new radiators in boxes. Plastic top and bottom tanks, the norm for almost 30 years now, are perishable and tricky to reuse, so modern radiators are usually replaced by new complete assemblies.

£6 coolant pumps may sound attractive, but do we really want to do such wholesale modifications to a 65 year old car with a pedigree ? I like to value these things in multiples of fuel fills with 98 octane. Prices all comes into perspective that way.

RT.
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Bob UK
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 94.197.122.72
Posted on Monday, 05 January, 2015 - 11:46:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I wasn't suggesting fitting the wrong pump. In that case there just not a pump available. The one fitted had a broken casting.

If a flange is loose on the shaft then knurling and loctite, is a std engineering technic. However a weld tack as well to make sure also helps.

Also antifreeze in the UK is £2.50 a litre. A 20 litre drum is £50.

If new rads can be made then old ones can be recored. These are small radiators compared to trucks a lot of which still use metal tanks.

(Message approved by david_gore)