jeffnles1

Well, the saga continues. If any of you remember my earlier post about the "while I'm at it" project, this is the final chapter. As background for those who didn't see the first post, I needed to change my water pump. While I was under there, I did a few other things too, new hoses, paint some parts, detail the engine compartment. I ended up darn close to a frame off which I think may have been easire in the long run.

I got her all back together tonight. I tightened all the belts, made sure all the screws were tight and torqued properly. I used the Kentucky Torque wrench, push on it until the bolt feels about right. I only had a couple of parts left over. I'm sure they were optional in the first place. After seeing what GM engineers thought was a good place to put things, they had to have made some extra parts just so that guys like me would look on the floor and wonder what that came from...

I filled the radiator with a proper 50/50 mix of antifreeze. Now, the moment you've all been waiging for. I started her up. My baby started on the first tap of the key. Whew, job's finished.

Oh oh, not so fast. No, the extra parts were not the problem. There was a terrible grinding noise coming from the front of the engine. Oh bad words bad words bad words, could the new bad words water bad words pump be bad? @#$%^&%&#@ I hope not. I sure don't want to go through that again.

So, I shut the engine off. I forgot one thing before I shut the engine off. Yes, the radiator cap was sitting on the ground by the front wheel. The engine compartment and front fender got a nice antifreeze bath when the pump stopped turning. It looked kind of like a gusher coming from an oil well. The Beverly Hillbillies song went through my mind again "come and listen to my story about a man named Jed, poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. Then one day as he was shootin at some food, up from the gound came a bubblin crude, oil that is... (only mine was antifreeze - hot antifreeze).

So, I cleaned up the mess as best as I could in my frustrated state.

Now, to find out the cause of that dreadful noise. I just won't accept a bad water pump. So I started looking for things rubbing. Eureka, I found it! The impeller shaft for the new pump is about .030" shorter than the old one. The pully was rubbing against the water pump housing and cutting a nice little groove in the cast iron. Oh Oh, I said, we just can't have that now can we?

Off came the belts, off came the flexible air intake boot, off came the fan and clutch (I'm getting pretty good at this by now and could remove a fan in my sleep), off came the pully. Now what to do. I can't shim it because my belts won't line up, and the fan would probably hit the radiator. I'm not sure, but I believe that would not be a good thing.

So, I did what any self respecting man would do. I got out the power tools. (uh uh more power grunt grunt). I took a belt sander to the back side of the pully. Well, that was going OK but making a God awful noise and would wake up the wife. I don't know about your significant others, but waking my wife up from a dead sleep with power tools is kind of like kicking a hibernating grizzly bear.

So, I did what any other self respecting guy would to. I put the ^%&*$$#@ thing in a vice and took a 10" mill file and started draw filing the #$%^$# thing. After about 10 trial fits with more filing between, I finally took about .060" off the back side to give me about .030" to play with. Of course, I didn't have any feeler gauges so I did what any self respecting guy would do. I folded some newspaper up until it was about .030" thick (yes I do have calipers) and used it as my feeler gauge.

So, back on goes the pully, the belts, the fan and clutch, the belts get tightened up, the rest of my antifreeze went back in.

By this time it's 1:00am and I was determined to either get it running or see the sunrise (or daylight since it's so cloudy) trying.

Check the time stamp of this message. It's almost 2:00am and I have a running Vette again.

Here's my words of advice to any of you poor souls who may undertake a project like this. I can sum it up in two words: "Professional Mechanic". If you don't have the $$$ for a professional mechanic, I have two more words for you; "Insurance Agent"...

Have fun.

mrbeaubo

WELCOME BACK!!!! :D

Jughead

Gee, I thought I was the only one who is left with extra parts after assembly! I hide them quickly before the wife comes around and starts to ask questions.

When thing go bad it's a real disaster.

Glad you got it together.

PatsLs1vette

well at least you got it,sounds like one of my episodes, :D

GaryS

"After seeing what GM engineers thought was a good place to put things, they had to have made some extra parts just so that guys like me would look on the floor and wonder what that came from..."

I figure that you must be 17 ;) because this is the same thing my 17 year old son sad when he reassembled the dash on hi Honda Civic and had a 1 pound coffee can filled with nuts, bolts, washers, braces, etc. :eek:

The car has run fine since he worked on it and we still have the can full of parts. :crazy:

Gary

427V8

Just think how much lighter you car is now without all those heavy 'extra' parts!

Dalannex

I know what you mean there. I put my 81' back together, and the water pump was no good, so apart it came for a new water pump. Then, ends up I got some bad information on a cam, so apart it came for a new cam. Then, the fan clutch went south, so apart it came again. There's nothing to it anymore. :D

69bblock3x2

A quick question for you. Were you consuming any adult beverages while you were doing this? :)

John

Rolling Thunder

Reminder to me.... do not attempt to drink first cup of coffee while reading a post by jeffnles1. :lol: That was too funny, and way too familiar. Thanks for sharing. :)

Dave

jeffnles1

<<I figure that you must be 17>>

Oh to be young again. I was 16 when my car was built. It's a 1976 so figure the math. I do thank you because nobody's figured me for 17 for over 20 years.

Jeff

jeffnles1

John,
unfortunately, I wasn't. After well, ...

Jeff