Help repacking/removing water pump on 1930 Erskine/Studebaker Model 53

[Guest wilsonsk]

I need to repack the water pump on my 1930 Erskine. I have the pump loose. The packing nut on the front side is free but I need to pull the yoke that the timing chain drives. The nut on the distributor side is being stubborn, it gets tight as I loosen it, working it back and forth is working slowly.

How does the shaft connect to the distributor drive? There is a nut where the shaft goes into the distributor, does that need to be repacked as well? I know the ignition timing is controlled by the shaft going through the water pump and I have made sure not to move anything or bump the motor.

I am looking for some instructions on how to proceed without destroying anything.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[Guest wilsonsk]

I thought I would post an update in case anyone was interested, I was having trouble removing one of the two packing nuts on the water pump. There is a long shaft that passes through the water pump and continues on to the distributor. I had been struggling to remove one of the two packing nuts and it felt as like the packing was binding, the nut was getting tighter. It turns out there are left handed threads on one of the packing nuts. This makes perfect sense (now) as the rotation of the shaft would have loosened it otherwise. I have it apart, just need to order packing and put it back together.

[Echo Robert]

Good to hear it was successful. Hopefully the manual copies were helpful in your process. Were you able to connect with Steve munts and mr. Quinn regarding your other questions/parts?

BTW...recieved the glass/snap ring...thanks again.

Robert

[Guest wilsonsk]

I ordered packing yesterday so I hopefully will be able to put it back together tomorrow (McMaster Carr is awesome, 1-2 day shipping for a reasonable price). The manuals you sent were a huge help, i would have spent more time trying to take it farther apart then I was supposed to and then had to deal with timing it again, thanks you very much. The key to the puzzle (left handed threads) was actually found in a parts list I had gotten with the car, I saw 3 packing nuts listed under the cooling section and one of them said "LH Thread", went out and tried it right away and that was it. I still have to dig out the old packing in the nut that stays on the assembly, I made a tool to work in between the inside of the nut and the shaft, I'll work on that tonight.

I did hear back from Steve Munts, he has some drawings but they were not exactly the same as my headlights. He said that 1930 was a transitional year from Erskine back to Studebaker and there would likely be some odd parts. I will get all of my parts together and see what I have and then take some pictures to post. He had some spark advance levers but he needed a picture of mine to be sure which I had, he may be able to help there as well. Thanks for that tip as well.

Did you try the dome light glass yet?

thanks for everything,

Steve