I have two 24 DB Water pump questions

[Guest lmccoll]

Hello,

After a few years of work, my dad's 24 Touring is just about completely finished, we got a new top installed and the car looks great.

One problem, when dad had the engine out, the water pump didn't leak, so he didn't rebuild it etc. Now it drips and the packing nuts are so corroded they won't budge.

So, he had an old spare pump, I installed a new shaft, new packing etc.

So here are my two questions,

To install a waterpump, the DB manual says to remove the radiator, which the hood would have to come off and remove the front pulley to take off the water pump. I tried to get the bolts out without removing the pulley or radiator, but I can't quite get the bottom right bolt out. Has anyone had any luck taking off the whole water pump unit without removing the radiator? Or, is it just easier to take off the radiator?

Second question, on our rebuilt pump, the water pump housing will slip back and forth on the shaft some, maybe as much as a 1/4" inch, I am going to measure it today. This tells me either the impeller or housings are worn causing a lot of clearance. Is this too much for the pump to work correctly?

Also, it would seem since there are two different things bolting to the engine, the gear end housing and the water pump housing, the location of the impeller and gear would have to be nearly exactly in the correct place. Anyone have problems bolting up a rebuilt unit?

Thanks for any help,

Larry in Arkansas

[Guest John1918]

Just one big caution with waterpumps. Check to make sure that the front engine chain cover lines up with the engine block accurately. To explain, the pump gear housing bolts half on to the block and half on to the chain cover so use a straight-edge (steel ruler) to make sure that the two surfaces line up to produce a perfectly flat surface for the pump gear housing to bolt on to.

Even though you may not have disturbed the chain cover, the old pump may have had enough play in the bushes to accommodate the mis-alignment. I learned the hard way, after installing a waterpump reconditioned by the late Bob Helm, I was driving down the road when "rrrrrip-BANG! the pump seized and ripped the teeth off my brand new fibre timing gear. So now my '25 has a steel timing gear, -no more problems!

John