Need water pump help
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 1,079
Likes: 0
From: Richmond VA
Need water pump help
Ok, my waterpump let go soon after I picked up my 68 (day of actually) about 1.5 years ago. I obviously replaced it, and just figured it was time for a new one. Well, the new one sprung a leak a few months later - I only drive my car on the weekends so it was minimal miles. This one was replaced for free, and was deemed to be bad bearings. Well, I just had my 4th pump fail Friday - does anyone have any idea what could be causing this??? 4 pumps in a year? This is not adding up. The belt is aligned, proper tension etc.
Thanks.
water pump perplexed.
Thanks.
water pump perplexed.
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 21,460
Likes: 463
From: Massillon,Ohio USA
2020 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Cruise-In VI Veteran
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12
Are all four of these pumps the SAME brand??? There were some pumps out there for awhile that were BAD the moment they were put in the box. I know a few owners and even a Corvette shop owner told me this. I have done either two things-bought a brand new AC Delco pump for about $115 and never had a problem for over 50K miles OR have my original one rebuilt by a reputable water pump rebuilder(Gould's in NY)for about $45-never had a problem there either and they've done two of mine a couple years ago.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 1,079
Likes: 0
From: Richmond VA
Thanks for the info. I think that I might have been the victim of the bad pump. I believe they have been the same brand, and my shop mentioned that it possibly could have been bad bearings in my previous - I will mention this to them again tomorrow. It is just such a pain, I was going to lift the car and finish some winter projects, and the pump threw my weekend plans off, for the 4th time.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,135
Likes: 2
From: Dayton Oh
This past summer, I had to replace two water pumps in my PU. Bought both from Autozone. The first one was DOA and leaked from the start. The second one started leaking after a couple of weeks. I think my problem is that I got what I paid for. The third one was from Summit and yes I paid more $ but its still working.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 986
Likes: 23
From: Florence SC
Does your car have A/C? My 69 350/350, w/air, killed 3 water pumps along with the fan, fan clutch and radiators untill by accident I found the A/C compressor was locking up, causing the shaft to twist out of the nose of the pump, sending the fan through the radiator and once took out the schroud also. It would only happen if the motor turned over ~ 4800 RPM. This was a very expensive lesson and I guess I was lucky to find the problem just by accident. The car was parked at the time with these repairs needing to be completed, I was surveying the damage just wondering what in the world could be causing this to happen, I reached down and spun the A/C compressor pulley and it locked up! It freed right up and I never could make it do it again by hand. I replaced the compressor bearing and never had any more trouble, I had never before or since seen a water pump shaft shear off like those did, this happened to me 23 years ago and I hope your problem is not as severe. 
