Has anyone repaired a water pump. I've had several 5-6 go (my car, friends') in < 1 year. At least 2 were just leaking from the weep hole & bearing is still good incl my 86 as of last week. I hate to keep throwing them away.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars

You're going through too many. Like Benski suggests, check belt tension. With 2 belts you can ease up on the tension as there is more grip.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

Belt tension has been good on my cars. I think. I'm careful about that. But I understand it can be a problem.

These are different cars, not the same ones. Not sure what the tension was on the other case as once the bearing goes it's looser/

Anyway, thanks for the reminder on that.

But the main thing is rebuilding them.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars

I agree. Some abuse happening somehow.

Although I've changed a dozen Volvo water pumps (guess) over the past 10 years, I've never had one fail in that way, i.e. leaky from the weep hole, or wobbly.

I love to stretch the life of parts and see how long they will last, but some carryover from years of domestic cars has me replacing water pumps proactively. So I have a collection of pumps with (probably) life left in them.

Two exceptions: One pump, which I show on the left below, only lasted one day with me, after its "proactive" install made my car run hot at idle. More recently, I replaced a pump because it had corrosion at the donut seal area preventing a re-seal from working. But none have "died" at the bearing or shaft seal even though all drive a mechanical radiator fan along with often fairly tight alternator belts.

There's a current thread on TB making my experience seem very non-typical.





--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Thanks for the comments Art.

I've got ~ 10 bad pumps in a box in my garage. I'll guess that 2 have are weeping and the rest have bad pulleys. I just bought an 86 w/a tight bearing but weeping; and an 89 with a bad bearing. Both parts cars.

In my experience 240 pump bearings are a weak point on the car so interesting that you've not seen this kind of failure.

I haven't had any fail after replacement and I always try for the correct tension as I know the probably result of a tight belt.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars

I have pondered the same question over the years. I have replaced just the big washer at top as sometimes pump is fine but this washer is what is bad. As far as repairing the actual pump itself I have never done so or attempted to do so. A Hepu pump from FCP is only about $50 and though I have done this job many times and can do it in under 3 hours it still nonetheless is a pain of a job. So I think therefore why do all the work & time to take off, repair, and put back on the pump if repair might not have worked ? Then you have to do everything all over again and instead of 3 hours you are looking at all day. However if there is a way to repair pump and be able to test it before putting it back then that would be great. Especially if repair were cheap enough(say $5 to $10). Look forward to others feedback on this.
--
' 88 740GLE auto wagon nearly 202,000 and ' 87 240DL auto sedan nearly 135,000

Thanks for your comments. Mostly this is about replacing bad pumps in cars that I obtain for family & friends.

If it's for a friend, I buy and install a new pump. For myself I pull a pump off a parts car. I drive these cars because I can keep them going via parts cars.

I don't know my time on a pump R & R. It's an easy job but time-consuming.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars

I've never repaired them, just replaced them carefully. Do you know what might be causing you to have to replace your pump? You might check your belt tension, and make sure it's not too tight.

Last year when i rebuilt the spare engine from a parts car, I looked into having the water pump rebuilt vs. buying a new or remanufactured one. There was a shop within a few miles of my house that advertised rebuilding alternators, starters, and water pumps. My preference is to hire an American to do the skilled labor instead of buying parts cheaply assembled in a foreign country whenever possible (even though I drive a Volvo!), but the shop owner told me that they only rebuild water pumps for rare vehicles or large machinery like bulldozers. So, it appears that rebuilding or repairing water pumps in my neck of the woods (Cincinnati) is not an option.

Thanks. Here we often rebuild on tractors & equipment but they're made to be rebuilt. And there's a strong cost incentive eg. for my JD $125 for the kit; $950 for the pump.

But folks also know that most car parts aren't made to be repaired and that's probably the key here.

If the 240 pump is $50 and the rebuilt kit $10 ($20?), they'd be insane to throw even 1 hour of shop labor at it.

I don't even mind scrapping the 240 pumps that have bad bearings. But scrapping for a weep seems wasteful.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars