Hey guys so I have a SBC 350 and my water pump pulley and crank pulley are not aligning. I have a short water pump and I just got some new short water pump pulleys from speed way. I dont know what is going on but my Crank pulley is sitting in 3/8th of an inch too far. I know I can get shims to help align but 3/8ths of an inch seems like a lot to me? I have looked at a bunch of threads that has talked about the pulleys not aligning and people were saying you can shim them, and to make sure you have the right pulleys. Well I am pretty sure I do have the right pulleys so I do not understand why I have a 3/8ths gap? Should I just shim them? Thanks in advance. <O></O> <O></O> <O></O> <O></O> <O></O> <O></O> <O></O> <O></O>
Been down that road before and it's kinda frustrating. I ended up having my water pump pulley flange pressed down onto the body a bit by a guy up at the local NAPA instead of shims other pulley. I had to file the pump body a tad for clearance, but all is well now.
Ya that sounds like a good idea, it looks like my flange could come in 3/8ths of an inch. I will call and see what napa says. Thanks for the advise
But what if the pump has to be replaced on the road? Think I'd look into having a 3/8 piece machined for the bottom pulley. Tim
Good point, are the flanges on waterpumps set in the same spot everytime? I do not understand why I even have a 3/8th space?
the flange on the water pump shaft is not on far enough , when it's correct the pulley will almost touch it. when you press it , take off the rear cover and press against the shaft
I have no idea what yr the balancer is? I got if from a guy off craigslist and he said it was on his 350 crate engine. This could be my problem because the balancer is 6.75in. I did not know they made different pulleys for different balancers, I thought it depended on your water pump.
I wouldn't press the pump. It's a compatability issue and a band-aid fix will require another band-aid when you ever need to change the balancer or pump. My way would be to assure the balancer is the correct one for my motor and go from there. Then I would find a pump that fits my balancer.
call speedway and tell them it doesn't fit and to send you a new one or your money back, why should you need to mess with it at all.
I was planning on calling them tomorrow morning, hopefully they are open since it memorial day, might have to wait till tuesday.
Your quite welcome. I'm a bottom feeder around this joint as far as knowledge goes, but I had struggled with this same issue so I thought I would chime in. Take care, John
It may not help to call speedway as nobody really knows which part or parts are wrong. In the last few years working on bone stock 70s LONG waterpumps, I have gotten 2 rebuilts that were pressed wrong. One was in too far, one was out too far...by about 1/4". one NAPA, one Carquest Now, if you try to press the hub on more, you do not want to move the impeller! You get a small socket to fit into the impeller bore to touch the SHAFT, so you are pressing the fan hub onto the shaft. Measure how much room you have before the hub hits the waterpump, it does not look like it can go 3/8 to me. one more thing, can you look at some local short pump setup with stock pulleys to try to see if either of the chrome pulleys look wrong?? Cars up to 68 or 69? and pickups up through 1972. I don't have one here to measure. My 66 truck has weird HD A/C P/S pulleys that are WAY different to compare. Could be faulty memory, but that fan hub looks different. I though they did not have that "step" and were thinner to allow more adjustment on the shaft.
I would mount the alternator or generator, whichever you are going to run, check alignment, see if its the waterpump pulley or the lower pulley. My 34 had a rebuilt short pump on it when I hit the deer. Bought another, same problem, I didn't change the lower pulley so I knew it was the waterpump. Took it apart, put it in my press, moved the flange, works fine. I was a line mechanic @ a Chevy dealership in the late '60s, had to do this to a new GM waterpump. I had a Speedway chrome waterpump pulley on the 34, had to replace it, used a stock factory pulley. Measured both, depth on the chrome one was same as the stock one so I doubt it's your waterpump pulley but who knows.
Check the center line of the pulley,mine is 3 1/8. Not sure what that pump is off of, does'nt look like mine,must be a later model Corvette.
And Junior Stock wins the prize !! Corvette pump and pulleys are closer to the block than the standard car p/u short pump.. Happens all the time when you use parts from different sources ( Isin't that what we ALL do on here ? ) Do not try and move the hub on the pump. They loose their press fit every time you move it on the shaft...Been there and done that,,,bought the new radiator to prove it ! LOL ! Best thing to do is make a spacer for the lower pulley.. Dave
after looking at the latest pictures you posted , that does not look like any SBC short water pump i've seen.....what is it?
I got it from a guy off craigslist, and I was told it was a sbc short water pump. I put it on and from what I could tell it was a short water pump and it bolted right up.
Ill see if I can press it in but I will defiantly compare it to a friends before I do something like that. It might just not be for a sbc.
Hey thanks, I dont have an alternator yet but I am thinkin it is my waterpump. The flange could be out to far or it could just be for another engine.
You may call the pulley manufacture and water pump company. Looks like they are mis-matched? I bought a set of under drive pulleys and a steel fluid filled balancer and the pulley grooves would not line up. A friend of mine cut my stock alternator bracket and had to off set it and add extra metal to line my problem up. It was real frustrating for me, down 3 months. In your case, Chevy, they probably can get you corrected real easy? Hope this helps, zrxlover? P.S. measure your old water pump flange face to pulley flange and see if they are the same?
I put a 3/8" thick Sprint Car motor plate on my engine, so my pulleys didn't line up either. Bought the speedway spacers, but didn't like them (I've got 4 you can have if you want them). I ended up just making (3) 3/8" long tubular spacers from 1" dia aluminum for longer lower pulley bolts...works great.
So just found this web site http://www.marchperf.com/pg8.html that shows a measurement of the mounting surface for the pulley and the back of the water pump to be 5.625", I went and measured mine and it was 5.925". So this would make sense why my pulleys do not line up. Looks like I may have to either get the flange pushed on further or look for a new water pump on craigslist.
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