So - I recently got my 354 Hemi back from the machinist and installed into my coupe. Sadly, during the first shakedown run, my new (reconditioned) water pump from Kanter failed. Pretty disappointing, but Kanter is going to replace it. In the meantime, I wanted to drive the dang car! I went ahead and ordered a water pump rebuild kit from Ebay and set about looking for some information on how to do this. Well, the internet was pretty barren and the advice I received from (very) knowledgeable individuals was to let a professional do it. Nah. It's just a water pump, not a rocket ship! Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
First thing I did was scour the web for a pdf service manual. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
So, after I removed the rear cover plate and got access to the impeller, the manual said push the pump shaft and bearing out the front of the pump housing. I had to make up a quick wooden jig to hold everything square Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Once the shaft was out, I flipped it over on my press and pushed it out of the snout. This is the original pump; it had a locating pin (check the manual) that I drove out with a punch. Every is a friction fit, and pretty darn tight (and rusty!) Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
At this point, I started really checking things out. The old seal was toast, and cracked to boot. And the shaft was definitely rusty. Also, there was this weird little clip - I don't really know what it did - it rides on the second groove of the bearing - maybe a kind of locater? The snap ring that holds the seal in place was pretty crusty, too. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
It seemed like the actual surface that the bearing seats on was ok, and where the shaft lives. I didn't mess with any of those machined surfaces but I did use a wire brush on a hand drill and clean up everything else. Here's where the math starts, and where I messed up. Although the new shaft and bearing are the same length as the old set, the old set had a shoulder on the bearing. I used this as my measuring point and everything else was subsequently a little off. But, anyway, the next step now is to press the shaft and bearing in from the front. Follow the instructions! I've got a bunch of misc deep well impact sockets that work well for this kind of stuff. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Here's where the trouble begins. At this point I put a little dab of grease on the seal seating surface and on the inner side of the seal, where the shaft spins. My local (two) hardware store(s) didn't have a snap ring that would fit, so I ended up using the old, crusty one to hold the seal into the body if the impeller. Anyways, now you flip the whole thing over, and very carefully while its balanced on the shaft, press the impeller onto the back of the shaft until it's all flush. Well, dang - remember when I pushed the bearing and shaft .155" in to deep? Yep - now the impeller rubs on the rear cover plate. What to do? Once the bearing and shaft are pressed in, that's it. No adjustment. So, at this point some Chrysler engineers are rolling over in their graves. I went ahead and pushed the impeller down on the shaft until I was happy with my rear clearance. Not very correct, but good enough for me. Sorry - this photo ****s Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Well, now I had to shave off the access shaft sticking out. How to do it without heating it up and destroying my brand new seal? With some sound advice from my brother, I submerged the ****er! With the seal and most of everything under water, I very carefully used my grinder to first cut shallow grooves into the end of the shaft, then a crosshatch, then grind 'em off. Repeat the process a few times and nothing ever got hot. Fingers crossed! Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Time to push the snout back on. Of course, I didn't learn anything from all that unnecessary work that I had just done, and ended up pushing the snout too far down on the shaft. Duh. But it's ok- nothing rubbed and I can make up the distance with a spacer (washers) behind my fan pulley. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Everything back in place and the belt lined back up. I used Permatex water pump sealant on everything so I left it all overnight to cure. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Morning of judgment! I did a little prayer and poured the coolant in. It didn't run out onto my feet, so I was pretty stoked! I drove the car around all day. Outside temp was in the high 90s and neighborhood crawling through New Orleans my temp never got above 175. A few miles out of town and back, and I was pretty satisfied. At the end of the day, I measured a little wrong. If I could redo the job today, my confidence level would be pretty high. Time will tell if this holds up, but I'm feeling pretty good. And I've got the new Kanter pump waiting in the wings, if I need it. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
@53 hemi Good write-up. I just had the water pump on my '56 Chrysler 354.replaced. But ! the guy that did the work pushed the shaft ***embly the wrong direction and broke out the part that served as the rear bearing stop (blind bore) He claims he looked it up on the internet and that's what it said. ??? So, I had to buy a rebuilt pump and after installation it is doing OK. Given the price of these units; if they can be found, I may try to refurbish the old one by boring out the existing bearing bore and inserting a shouldered sleeve into it. Anyway, I am curious as to how much clearance there is supposed to be between the impeller and the rear housing where the plate bolts on. How did you set yours?
I didn't have a water pump years ago for my 354" Chrysler in my Plymouth. I went the route (as I remember?) and got an adapter that took a big block Chevy. I figured that if I ever got stuck out on the road somewhere, the Chevy pump would be much easier to find.
@Stan Back That's what I did on the 331 that's going inthe ‘40 Chrysler Coupe (avatar) A short GM pump with HotHeads aluminum adapters. I made my own cross-over with t-stat housing and byp***. However, on this 1956 Chrysler NewYorker 354, I want to keep everything stock if anyone is interested, I have the 331 rebuilt stock water pump for sale
I just went through the same thing doing a 331 hemi water pump for a friend of a friend. He turned up with it all dis***embled and with a bunch of new parts but NO instructions or guidance to offer. Both the impeller and fan hub were a sloppy (+0.005") fit on the new bearing/shaft ***embly but the bearing OD was luckily still tight in the pump housing. I ended up making a new fan hub with a 0.002" press fit, but the oversize impeller bore had me stumped. This might sound complex, but it was the only thing I could think of to recover the impeller bore. Clocked up the impeller in the lathe and machined and tapped the bore from the inside/finned side and fitted a solid Br*** 3/4" NPT plug with 620 Loc***e so it tightened up flush to the back face, I then bored the plug for a 0.002" press fit. Because the original impeller seal face was also very deteriorated I machined the Br*** plug accordingly to fix that too. Cleaned everything up, re-***embled it all with the new parts and provided 0.020" impeller fin to housing clearance. That was about ~2 months ago, and he's put quite a few hundred miles on it already with zero problems. That was a very condensed explanation but I'm hoping that this info may help someone else with similar problems.
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