Yeah it sure pays spending a day running for material, that they will only sell by the foot with a cut charge of course, measuring both water pumps to find the difference between them( if you have them both) and then machining a part worth $50 bucks. After buying the material you might be able to make $1.75 an hour.
well, I have a "truck" pump on my Model A Y block. When I found out the pump pulley would not fit on the pump shaft I drilled the hole out a little and also cut out a small plate to space the pulley out to line up with the crank pulley. I never knew the truck pump was different than the car pump, I just thought I had the wrong pulley and made it work. In the years since, I came across a car pump and that is when I found the difference in shaft size. This started a search for different water pump bearing or rebuild kits so I would be prepared for when the my truck pump goes bad. I have never found anything but the one size bearing, of which I guess is the car pump bearing. So, is the truck pump kit available? Or will I have to put a kit in my car pump and get another car pulley? Oh, and are the car pumps and the truck pumps the same other than the bearing/shaft size? is one better than the other one as far as cooling?
Never purchase material that way. I go straight to the take off section and buy it by the pound. Way cheaper! Even better stock up. That way one doesn’t have to run out to buy each time a little project comes around.
That's all well and good if you have or have access to a lathe and a close, cheap source of material. I've got the lathe, but buying local means a 80+ mile round trip ($20-30 fuel cost) and it won't be scrap price and in most cases I have to buy a 3' piece. I've been buying off eBay lately, as I can usually find material for less than McMaster-Carr and free shipping. But even there, a 2.5" x 6" chunk is $30+, leaving about $35 ($55 plus shipping) for labor. I figure about three hours start-to-finish to have a done part in your hand with my manual lathe, so I'm 'paying' myself about $11 per hour. Better than John's $1.75 but not by all that much these days. If you don't have a lathe and have to pay a machine shop, that $55 starts looking positively cheap...
There is certainly more than one to do it. Just depends on what you have access to and what your time is worth.
Truck pumps are no longer available. Some of the truck pumps came with bigger impellers, but I 'm not sure if that was for the f-600's or regular F-100's.
Thanks Geoff for making another handy and well thought out part for us yblockers. I ran into to this issue unknowingly and much to my surprise when I did a swap in my 64 292 yblock pickup. I wish I had this part then. It would have been well worth the money. Unfortunately the 64 s gone now but I'll still have my 55 bird forever. I believe you, Geoff also reworked the ECG iron heads for my build as one of the last sets before the introduction of the Aluminum. The head work really made a giant difference in my rebuild and was some of the best money spent. And just for fun here's a vid of the rams horns I got from Mummert for the 64 truck yblock. Wish I never sold it!
The Jalopy Journal
