Resto: New Timing Cover Gasket & Water Pump Removed

With us all smack bang into the full swing of the Christmas holidays, what better way to unwind from work and the mad pre Christmas build up than with a planned day in the resto-shed to de-stress and let the grease gods do their thing on us, yes for some it is therapy.
So it was arranged a week ago, "we'll make it Wedensday" and once again like clock work Ray walks down the driveway with an arm full of "spare parts and man-cave treasures" right on 7.30am to begin turning some spanners on Monty.
The timing cover and gasket was to come off and a new gasket installed to stop a small oil leak which I had cleaned up the week before in preperation for today and this picture below shows what it was like after I removed the radiator and also over the past 12 months I have degreased and pressure washed down in here a good few times before so it was rather dirty and covered in greasey crap to begin with.

Also while we were at it and the radiator was out of the car it was decided that the water pump come off also as there was a 3mm bit of forward and back movement on the water pump impeller shaft when you pulled the fan in and out, fix it now and fix it right, but the first thing to do was remove the lower pulley...

With the pulley soon removed the timing cover was next and in no time we also had that off to reveal it's internals to us...... All looked very good and once again Monty is in very good shape, no surprises there.
Then the water pump came off by unbolting 4 x bolts with all seemed in good condition..

With the small chisel we removed the old gasket while making sure to block the oil supply outlet with a rag to stop crap from getting inside the motor, the air compressor with a small wire wheel was then used to clean and buff up all the metal surfaces around where the new gasket was to go, it all came up looking like new including the water pump mount which got the same treatment.

Clean as a new one

With it all looking lovely and clean the new timing cover gasket was lined up and installed along with some non hardening gasket sealant to make for a great job.... We were both happy and making great progress as always.
Next we were off to dad's factory to use the big press to press out and remove the water pump impeller shaft but this is where things got off track for the day. We cracked and broke the water pump housing as it twisted just so slightly in the press and some of the casting broke off.. #%*@  - anyway not to worry as Ray said he has about 6 others at home to replace it with and will take it back there to do the repair on and fix the front and back movement of the shaft.

Whats next?, whats next?, where to from here? so now we changed focus and made a beeline for the fuel vacuum tank and the copper fuel lines. "Ray I like those curls you have in your fuel lines on your Red Chev, they look old and interesting".... so that was it, I got a very quick lesson in how to create "curls" out of copper pipe which did not take long at all and it was like watching a veteran production line work in a car factory as I think someone had done that a good few times before...

The end result - Fantastic!

 

After lunch the radiator went back in the car with 2 x new mounting bolts and then we spent a good hour I would say adjusting and measuring the bonnet and also the radiator to get the bonnet sitting just nice, a little tweaking here and there and soon we were both happy with the look of it considering that no bonnet latchers are installed to hold it all down nice a tight, but they will come soon..

A great day it was, with great conversation and a few good laughs along the way and once again Ray thanks so much for your time and effort...

Ray emailed me tonight and has repaired/replaced the water pump housing and that after stripping the broken pump down has discovered it was a previously botched up, dodgy repair of about 50 years ago probably...

We were both surprised when it broke in the press today, but more so Ray who has pressed out many of these before and never had one let go on him in this fashion.

This is some of what Ray wrote in his email:

• 1. Changed housing (pressed 2 at home the same way no problem, so may have been cracked  already)
• 2. Changed Impeller (Monty's was corroded on the inside)
• 3. Replaced Shaft (Monty's was corroded and bent)
• 4. Replaced Fan Belt Pulley (Monty's was a bit warped)
• 5. Replaced Fan Blade Hub ( Monty's was a bit loose once the rust let go, that would have been fun down the track)
• 6. Replaced front and rear thrust washers
• 7. Fitted New Internal Baffle (Monty's had hole)

The only parts reused were:

• The main bush (Stripped out gland packing and replaced)
• The front bush (Not drilled for lube, would have failed. Drilled and reamed)

  Good days fun, another few baby steps.