Gday: a Mate Down Under needs a Bearing

[Geoff C.]

[Dick W.]

Re: Gday: a Mate Down Under needs a Bearing

Doc, Zip sells the kits.

[Tracy C.]

you trying to stir to pot again Papa Smurf?? *NM*

[Jack H.]

Re: Gday: a Mate Down Under needs a Bearing

C-Central also stocks SB and BB water pump rebuild kits. Typically, the going rate for a kit of pump parts runs about $40 and you have to read the descriptive text of each catalog house's ad to see what you're getting for your money...

[Dick W.]

Re: you trying to stir to pot again Papa Smurf??

Just a simple answer to a simple question. Used to be able to buy the kits from the old TRW co, but they went the way of the Do-Do bird. The bearings are readily available, but the seals are the hard part to find.

[Bernard M.]

Re: Gday: a Mate Down Under needs a Bearing

If he has the old seal, it normally has a part number stamped into it somewhere. I have successfully used this on a small block water pump to cross reference to an part available from Grainger.

[Joe L.]

Re: Gday: a Mate Down Under needs a Bearing

Geoffrey----

Well, I can tell you one thing----they're not available from GM. In fact, some of the big block waterpump internal parts were NEVER available from GM.

As others have mentioned, some of the vendors do have these parts for sale. I don't expect that they sell too many of them, though, since few folks rebuild their own pump (it's really not as easy as it might seem; that's why GM dropped the pump rebuilding procedure from the overhaul manuals after 1971).

Given the cost of shipping even the rebuilding parts to Australia, he might be better off just finding a rebuilt waterpump for a big block Chevrolet there and stripping out the parts he needs to rebuild his pump.

However, there's one VERY important point to be made here whether he buys the parts or buys a rebuilt waterpump to salvage parts from. That is this: the GM #3992077 waterpump casting was used for only the 1971-72 model years. However, that casting may have been used for SERVICE waterpumps for earlier years. If he has a 1970 Corvette with a 3992077 waterpump, then it's a SERVICE waterpump and not an original. The same is true if he has a 1974 Corvette.

Now, the important point that I'm getting to here is that which SHAFT/BEARING ASSEMBLY he needs depends on which year car he has. 1970 Corvettes with big block used a 3/4" shaft with a 5/8" pilot. 1971-74 Corvettes used a 3/4" shaft with a full shaft diameter pilot (i.e 3/4"). So, he needs to be sure that he gets the correct shaft or it won't work with other components of his car (i.e. pullies and fan clutch). The impeller end shaft for ALL shaft assemblies was 5/8" OD.

The seal and seat assemblies are the same for all big block waterpumps, so he can't go wrong there.