Is it common to relive water pump for pulley clearance?

Bought a set of aluminum pulleys for my SBC and the water pump pulley is barely rubbing the 2 heater hose ports.
Is it common to have to take a small amount of material off the water pump at those 2 places for the back of the pulley to clear or do I have a bad pulley.'
Looked up the part numbers again and according to the part number on the box I got the right one for a short pump but there is no number on the pulley itself.
I figure if I got one for a long pump by accident it wouldn't even bolt onto a short pump.

 

Can't spell Header was supposed to say relieve

 

I have a short pump and an aluminum pully on my 53 chevy..no problem like you are having, can you send up a picture?
if you need when i get home i can shoot and send you a picture of how mine lines up on the chevy

im running steel pullys on the A and nothing like this either.sounds strange
how is it lining up with the pully on the crank?

my thinking is someone got too happy machining out the center where it mounts to the water pump shaft and pully hub..or its not the correct one

I can also get you dimensions..

 

Or they didn't get happy enough on the outer edge.

 

good point...

my thinking is wrong pully in the right box

 

If it's barely rubbing, a little bit of relief grinding in the problem area isn't going to do any harm at all. However, I'd be more concerned about how the pulley groove lined up with the crank pulley, and any others involved with the same belt. If your new pulley is not in line, then you have a problem...

 

I need to go get a dampner install tool so I can put the dampner and crank pulley on and see how it lines up with the water pump pulley.
Took a couple of pics last night but didn't pull them out of the camera yet.
dimension from the back edge to the inside mounting surface of the pulley would help.
1/16" to 1/8" would be enough to clear just didn't expect it to rub.
I to thought wrong pulley in the right box but it bolts up fine and if it was for a long pump the inside depth of the pulley would be quite abit deeper I think.

 

It's not uncommon to space the water pump pulley forward to line up with crank pulley. They sell spacers.

Wait until you get crank pulley on before you do anything.

 

Years ago I had similar problem with an aluminum water pump and some aftermarket pulleys. Had a slight leaker so bought new pump and used some chrome pulleys that had been lying around, went to slip on the belts and found upper pulley was bound up. Pulled it and installed stock pulley and same problem appeared. It was binding against casting numbers on pump, a bit of filing and problems went away. Glad it happened at home and not out on the road someplace. There is a lot of good to be said about OEM parts versus aftermarket, without throwing in all the slight variations available from both sources.

 

I had a problem like this recently on my 56 Caddy motor that needed a new pump. Problem was someone must have pressed the center onto the impeller too far in and the pulley rubbed which I found out after everything was together of course. It wasn't off by much, just enough to cause a rubbing problem. A little grinding on the casting and all is well. Another example of crap made here in the states by someone who can't do their job properly once again.

 

Kind of good to hear others have had this problem, maybe it's the right pulley just a little out of tolerance maybe.

 

Heres a couple of pics the pulley is bolted up tight but is rubbing the horizontal pump port and barely clears the vertical one.
I will put on the dampner and bottom pulley before doing any grinding on the pump but looks like it might only take a 1/16" of an inch or so and I dont know how true it will spin so might have to take a little off the vertical port just to make sure it doesn't rub.
Just didn't expect to have to grind on the water pump.

 

Mine was that close so I ordered some water pump to pulley spacers from Summit Racing.

 

Never mind the crank pulley and balancer ... just do what Ken and Joe said and get yourself a spacer -- Summit, Speedway, and others all have them.

Worry about the spacers you'll need for the crank pulley later.

 

I'm sure you probably checked, but the w.pump didn't get dropped, like on the shaft did it? Does it spin smooth? No bulge on the impeller cover I hope? If not, like others said, spacers will do.
Just a 2-cent thought...

 

some one may have pushed the hub on the bearing too far. is this a new or rebuilt pump? i rebuild waterpumps and know the hub or pulley has to be reinstalled at correct distance from housing