Water pump pulley spacing

[tequilaiam]

Are there any issues with hub spacing with V-velts?

The water pump pulley was scraping against my new water pump. I could hear it and I can see where it scraped through some engine paint I put on the WP before remounting everything.

So I put some small lockwasher under the studs that hold the pulley and fan to the WP flange to act as spacers. They're maybe 2mm thick at most.

Is this enough to cause V-belt problems?

The water pump casting is different than the factory one I removed. The new one has an extra NPT hole with a threaded plug and had a little interference with the pass. side alternator bracket as well (a file to the bracket fixed that).

Maybe I should have tried grinding the pump casting but didn't think of this until now. Not sure what this small amount of shimming will do to the pulley/belt system.

Any thoughts? I just got all new belts and don't want to mess with them again a month after I get the rig all put back together.

 

[AECS]

Once the belt is installed, if it tracks true you should be fine. There is very little room for error in alaignment. Even if it seems good to the eye and turning it over by hand, at throttle it could through it pretty easy.

 

[gringeltaube]

I would rather grind the pump's casting...!


G.

 

[juanprado]

I suspect you have the wrong pump. What is the GM casting number on it?

Many of the pumps in that family look the same but are not.

 

[tequilaiam]

Not sure Juan, I'll look when I get home tonight. I got it off rock auto being careful to pick something listed as compatible with the early part of the 80s. I know that the ones designed for serpentine belts flow the opposite direction. But the back of both pump vanes are just a disc with two notches, you can't actually see which way the blades are angled.

I was hoping this was just a QC issue related to the people's water pump casting plant #4 vs. #3 over in china or something.

 

[dependable]

If it is a rebuild, is it possible the bearings, impeller were pressed in too far?