Lets talk leakless water pumps!

[Jason in TX]

Yeah. I added the Jim Rupert Original and XD pumps in the first post so that the information can all be together.

[callcoy]

Jason;
Thank you for post on leak less water pumps, I am sure it helped many people better understand their options.
Although a responder mentioned that a supplier has a kit available for creating/assembling a leak less pump, it should be pointed out that the individual components to do this are available from at least two of the major suppliers. On several occasions I have purchased parts to do this for approx. $70.00. To complete a pump, one must have access to a hyd. press and be able to read a mike and telescoping gauges or calipers. On the other hand, I have yet to find a pump housing that has bores that are oversize.
While I have noted that some of the posters have concerns about side loading the front bearing excessively with an alternator and maybe an AC compressor. The bearing shown in your Snyder’s photos, that’s combined, with the shaft, I believe is the same type and quality as the bearing assembly used in our modern cars. Only one bearing is used in our daily drivers and depending of the drive belt setup it could be included with not only the water pump but an alternator, an AC compressor. a power steering pump and maybe a smog pump. Granted in my case it is a serpentine belt, but I do have an old Chevy. pick up that has all of this and has to do it with two v-belts off the water pump. We have an advantage with our A’s, in that with a leak less set up we have the same bearing up front plus a bushing or bearing in the rear. This is a much stronger set up then any modern car and I have run for over 200,000 miles on a modern pump.
There was also some concern about using a needle bearing in our pumps, the concern is very valid if we were using the 80 year old type bearings found in the original pump. However, as stated above the bearing in use is not a needle design and has been used in millions of automobiles; if it was prone to failure the mfg’s would have stopped using it. I prefer to use a needle bearing in the rear instead of the brass bushing; the front bearing takes almost the entire side load. This set up is great for those who put a great deal of miles on their cars; it is durable and long lasting. However it is the wrong approach for those that will have their car fine point judged, those individuals should just use the modern bearing and shaft in the front and the brass bushing with a simulated packing gland.
Another poster noted that his shaft was undercut by the rear seal. This if it was mine would be reported to the supplier for replacement or refund. If the manufacturer is producing a product that is defective, the retailer supplier should demand a change in the product. If the supplier fails to do this, the visitors to the “Barn” will do their best to straighten him out.