Hercules JXD water pump

[SteveM8]

Come on now. I gave you two pictures. That is worth 2000 words. You have the seal number. We do expect a certain amount of technical competence on this board.

[SteveM8]

I am, of course, being a complete ass. My wife would say that is normal. For some reason, I do not listen to her much these days. But, I digress. I will be happy to explain in detail and with more photos. I should probably put something together for an MV magazine article.

[autocar925]

Has anyone run the updated seal pumps for very long? Reason being is the National Seal shown is a lip seal. Water pumps are entirely wrong application for lip seals. The abrasiveness of rusty water eats the lip quickly. Check all automotive water pumps from the 50's on and you'll find face seals. Most modern face seals are carbon on ceramic.

[SteveM8]

Awww...Now my parade is all wet from being rained on. I will grant you that water pump seals are not lip seals, and there is a whole science behind them. I worked for an automotive water pump bearing company, and even the bearing seals were special. However, these seals were in my rebuild kit 20 years ago, and I had no idea what they were for back then. I simply rebuilt the pump in the normal way, and it lasted all this time. Now, I am older and wiser and could figure out the puzzle. So, I tried it this way. I have no idea how long it will last. I did include a safety factor; there was enough room for two seals, so I used two in tandem. Now that I think about it, I should have packed the space between them with grease. I will let you know how it holds up after a 30 mile run to Brent Mullins upcoming MN show in March.

[autocar925]

Worst case scenario you just remachine for a face seal. Heavy duty Chevy V8 water pumps used a 3/4 inch shaft so seals are dirt cheap and available.

[harold dawley]

FYI - I installed the rebuilt water pump from ARTHUR GOLD and it works fine.

THANKS!

[SteveM8]

Please post a photo of the rebuilt pump so we can see how the professional does it?

[SteveM8]

I did not accomplish much of test in making the run to Brent's this past weekend. I blew out an engine freeze plug five miles down the road. I looked in the rear view mirror (a modification I added) and saw what I thought was smoke billowing out the rear - I was doing 45 mph at the time. We are talking adrenalin rush, emergency stop and fire extinguisher grab type exercise. Then I saw it was coolant and steam, and was expecting find a failed water pump. Pump looked fine, but water looked like it was coming out the bottom of the radiator when I tried to add coolant. Ended up towing it home with the Suburban. I took off the engine deck then saw the missing freeze plug in the back of the engine. Should be operational again this weekend.

[SteveM8]

I took out the water pump using lip seals after five years, and it is still working. I have to rebuild my engine, so I am checking everything. I have rebuilt the pump again using lip seals. However, this time I also machined out the housing where the cork seal keeps in the engine oil. I used the same lip seal in this location, so the pump now uses three of these lip seals. The shaft that contacts the lip seal on the coolant side was quite worn with a groove in the shaft. I used a new shaft.

[SteveM8]

You have to bore out the housing to 1.608-1.612 inches for the seal to press fit correctly.

[SteveM8]

Here is my next attempt using a 3/4 inch waterpump seal I bought from Amazon.com. You have to machine out the pump housing and the impeller. It is still a work in progress.

[Big D]

Hi Steve

Looks good. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

[SteveM8]

I finally got the engine rebuilt and took the M8 for an hour long drive cross country. There are no leaks from the water pump with the modern pump seal.