fake

I wonder what GM was thinking in the design of the water pump. The bearing is so small and where is the lube? Has any one an alternative to this? Does the ZR1 have a similar pump? Was this another low bid item?

don hall

Bronze bearing - prelubed (?):

http://www.nationalbronze.com/News/s...onze-bearings/

mtwoolford

The "thinking" was that once you remove all the side load from the pump by removing the fan belt and replacing it with a direct gear driven mechanical drive that imparts no side load then you don't need a huge bearing.

Tom400CFI

And the typical WP longevity has proven that the thinking wasn't wrong.

fake

The bearings are as small as wheel bearings in my 77 car! They are not self lubed and the race is is as soft as foil you would cook a turkey in. Amazing when you take a wp apart of this vintage pure crap. If it was so well manufacture why do they keep changing design? It all boils down to cost! And to correct my self the bearings in this LT1 wp are half the size of a wheel bearing!

Tom400CFI

Say.....whut?? ^^^

DGXR

Does your 1977 model have an LT1? Considering the title of this thread, maybe you are confusing the issue?

95LT1ZF

As far as I know, going electric may be your only other option. They seem to hold up though. Seen many well over 100K with no play and still spun smooth.

Tom400CFI

How long to "regualr" water pumps last?



Just curious...."Where is the lube" on a conventional water pump?

Strick

Okay, I'll jump in here. The OEM pump had a few serious flaws. First the bearing fails around 80K or so. When it does fail, it begins to leak coolant all over your opti spark distributer. So, you'll have to replace the opti which is hard to find and expensive (unless you buy a cheap aftermarket one which won't last very long). My fix was to replace the OEM water pump with a Meziere electric water pump. This involves removing the pump fins from the housing and installing the electric pump. Mine has been installed for around 30K or so which was about 15 years ago. If the electric pump ever fails, it will take about 30 minutes to replace it and it won't get your opti all wet. Check out tech tips for how I did it.

http://web.archive.org/web/200402021....php?TopicID=2
look for Meziere coolant pump install

Tom400CFI

That isn't right. You can clean out your old opti and continue to run it. I've done it.



What is "not very long"? I'm over 2 years on my "cheapie"...that I also doused and then cleand and continued to run.


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