Water pump failure and mechanical fan upgrade?

My 350 in my 69 LeSabre seems to eat water pumps. Many years ago, I bought a pump at a local speed shop and it pooped out after a few months, so I bought another, and that one did the same thing. I then got a 3rd pump, this time from CarQuest, and had no more issues, until now. That pump is many years old, but very few miles. I can grab the fan, and see/feel the pulley move just a bit, so I know it's on its way out.

The "speed shop" pumps I'm sure were garbage. The CarQuest pump should be fine.... this was in the 90's when all their house brand parts actually stated the manufacturer and they were all well known brands.... although a water pump may have been a rebuild.

At some point, I even put a new clutch on it.

I did a search and didn't find any smoking guns, on the board, but the search function seems to decide my search words aren't good enough..... doesn't want to search for air, fan, AC, A/C, and so on.

I'm wondering if there's a known issue with pumps, and what about maybe taking some weight off the nose of the pump, by swapping to a modern plastic/nylon fan? The fan isn't really visible inside the shroud.

Also, in looking at fan clutches, on Rockauto, I see that there are two different lengths, which of course is going to change the position of the fan in relation to the shroud. Can someone explain that?

 

It's not so much the mass of what may be rotating on the nose of the pump, but if the belts are loading the pump more to one side or another that eat's up bearings.

A life long friend of mine on a baha racer use to have bad pump issue where the motor would eat up a pump after every 2nd race.
To cure this he added a idler / tensioner pully on the other side of the motor on a thick steel plate that he made up and a longer belt of course.
The end result was many seasons of racing with no failure.

I am not saying you need to go to this extreme, but its food for thought in regards to belt tension.
Many of us who have ditched the A/C now have no belt on one side of the motor to counter balance the force of the other one or two belts on the other side of the motor.

There are many great rebuilders you can contact and send that pump out to , they do great work and may have access to better quality parts, in terms of bearings.

I don't think the turn around time is too bad either!

A bottle of water pump lube added to the cooling fluid should be in there also.

 

The AC isn't hooked up, in fact I just removed the compressor last night, but it was on the same side as the alternator, like I thought all Buick V8's were set up?

I didn't think of that. It's not original to the car, but it's probably a GM casting.

 

Belt tension too tight will destroy water pump bearings.

 

I suppose it could be the belt being too tight. I've always run two belts on it, but the the outer one is loose... it sits in the groove lower than the other one. I have no recollection of how tight I initially made these belts, it was too long ago.

 

Don't forget that antifreeze lubricates the water pump. If you aren't running a good 50/50 mix of antifreeze (typically the "green" ethylene glycol) and distilled water, that could be an issue too.

And it needs to be changed every 5 years maximum because the additives in the antifreeze wear out & go away over time.

-Bob C.

 

I think I have some sort of long life in it, that is now very old (but few miles). That shouldn't have been in issue with the first two pumps that only lasted a few months, Though.

 

I agree with the belt too tight. Another possibility is making SURE that the belt is running square (ie not pulling toward the front or rear of the car).

 

I also run two belts and have a difficult time finding belts that are the same length. They no longer sell matched sets so I just purchase several and use two that are are the closest in length. Also, see above post about making sure that the components are running true.

 

Are you thinking something like the wrong length water pump? I read there were three lengths.

 

Sight down from the side of the car and make sure that all of the pulleys are lined up and the components aren't cocked. I know that if you use a pry bar on the alternator, the alternator can cock slightly and cause one belt to be tighter that the other and wear the belts out. If you have the wrong length water pump, you won't get the belts on the pulleys. Well, you might, but it would be obvious that something is wrong..

 

It looks okay, to me.