What is the proper grease for a 1925 water pump?

My pump has brass bushings and there are no seals on either side of the impeller. There is graphite packing on the out board side of the bushings.

Thanks in advance.

Dan, It's my understanding you should use a marine type of grease that won't brake down in the coolant. The kind that is waterproof that they use on wheel bearings for boat trailers. Perhaps someone with more knowledge than I could shed additional information.

Dan

Waterproof grease is correct, Restoration Supply sells two types: www.restorationstuff.com

Thanks Dan and Don.

This is timely as I rebuilt my own earlier in the summer ('22 Paterson). I used the waterproof white lithium stuff sold by the small tub at any better auto supply store. White/ creamy color and like soft butter in consistency.

As a sidenote, if you've replaced your old packings, tighten the nuts only finger tight while allowing for a running leak of a few drops per minute. This is important (and flies in the face of my perfectionist side) but they're supposed to have a slight running leak at all times. Also, your rear compression nut will probably have left hand threads.

Good luck.

Chris,

Thanks for the reply.

I am installing new packing and will take care.

I found it interesting that the shaft was worn where the packing rides but the shaft and bushing were still in good shape.

The packing could have been the original on this 19k mile 1925 engine.

The shaft was probably worn because the gland nut had been tightened too much. A previously mentioned there should be a drip of coolant. Mine drips enough to wet the gland nut but not enough to run down anywhere. I change my antifreeze every three years (36,000 miles) and have not had to add any coolcnt between changes in 48 years. So you can see it is a very very small drip. I also repack the gland about every second time I change the antifreeze. With the amout of driving I do I find that I need to tighten the nut about a sixteenth of a turn twice a year.

Thanks for the great info.

Have you ever used a filter in the upper radiator hose to trap engine block rust?

I have heard of a glass unit but have no other information.

ABSOLUTELY you should use a filter in the upper radiator hose to catch engine rust. I don't know what kind of radiator you have but my honey comb radiator became clogged with little chunks of rust that resulted in over heating. VERY expensive lesson in replacing the radiator. I bought the Gano filter. I don't have the info handy but try to Google it.

Dan

I don't have one on my car, but a filter screen is a smart idea. Sure, you can buy a ready made one or you can easily make one yourself. Just go to a better hardware store, buy a length of bronze mesh screen to your preference, then cut and shape into a small cone that fits the inside of your hose. You can make it as long as you want for maximum filtering area. The overlapping edges are either soldered and/ or sewn with a strand of wire. Cost was under $5 when I did it once and took less than an hour make and install.

I too, have the old honeycomb radiator core and as new ones are unreasonably expensive for me (approx. $1000 from new Jersey) it makes sense to baby what you have for as long as possible.

Chris

Chris, Sounds like a good inexpensive idea. However, would your homemade filter catch debri once you shut the engine off? What I mean is that the upper radiator hose coming from the engine block is flowing up hill toward the radiator. So in other words, anything that the screen caught would fall back down into the engine from gravity once the engine was turned off. The Gano filter has a resevoir area within the filter tp prevent this from happening. I think it was $30 if I'm not mistaken.

What style of honey comb do you have? The style I have is known as the "Auburn" It was only used on Duesenbergs, Packards and certain Chryslers. Lucky me such a rare core. The only place in the world that core is reproduced is in England. With shipping just the core alone cost me $1400.(Not including restoration/re-coring) Most antique radiator shops here in America buy the cores from over there and put a 50% mark-up on the product. It pays to do research.

Dan

I use the Tefba filters on my car. I like the way they can be cleaned without disassembling the radiator hose.

http://www.fasterjags.com/Tefba.html

Hi Dan --

Depending on which way your cone filter faces, any debris will either tend to get caught between the filter mesh and the walls of the tubing or, if facing the opposite direction, in the center of the cone filter -- in which case it might tend to fall back into the block as you mention. I would assume that if debris is really an issue, you will have backflushed your block more than once -- for good measure and at some length -- so that anything still floating around would now be so small as to be almost irrelevant.

Dan, I have no idea of what other cars used my radiator. As for style, it looks very much -- and may be -- a Harrison type of honeycomb. This, after having consulted the pictures in my circa 1925 copy of Dyke's Auto Encyclopedia. I didn't think to record any manufacturer's markings in my maintenance log when I took it apart last summer. I had originally taken the radiator as a whole to a few radiator shops and without exception, they personally didn't want to touch it. I do remember one guy telling me that the entire honeycomb core could be replaced with a new one still made by some outfit in New Jersey. Because the price would have been over a $1k though, I didn't pursue it. Instead I took it back home, and back flushed it thoroughly over and over. Next I built a wood tank of scraps, caulked the seams, placed the core in it, and filled it full of water. I plugged all of the holes except for the filler (to which I ran a hose to) and lightly pressurized it with a hand-held bicycle pump. I then marked the leaks as best I could and soldered them closed. As they were all in the upper tank area, I didn't have to deal with the frustration of having to patch it in mid-core somewhere. I then back flushed again, pressurized (lightly!) in the water tank again looking for any bubbles, and installed back in the car. It's been a year now and I have yet to detect any wet spots. Plus there's the satisfaction in knowing your money saved is better spent on something else. I think I've bought it a few more year's time.

Chris

The thread has drifted to cooling filtering but I would like to push some more on the water pump grease.

I have tried a bunch of different so called water pump greases and high temperature greases and none hold up in use like the old stringy water pump grease you could buy 40-50 years ago. Does anyone make that style grease anymore?

A decent chandlery such as West Marine should have it or at least will be able to tell you who does.

In general you want to stay away from lithium greases. They generally turn milky and slurry en contact with water. Definitely stay away from sodium greases.

Bentonite greases are normally totally waterproof. They sort of encapsulate water molecules. If you put some in your hands and really work it with water, then let it sit, it will look like it is sweating a little, but it will never mix or break down. Frequently they come with moly and/or graphite.