Technical Water pump leak... 1954 Buick

I replaced the water pump (had a bad bearing ) on the 322 in My 1954 century with a known good one. When I went to refill it with coolant, I noticed it dripping from the weep hole in the water pump. I coated the bolts going into water jackets with silicone. What could the problem be?

 

Well, certainly isn't good now...assume by "known good one", you mean it was a used one?

 

if it is leaking out of the weep hole the seal in the water pump is bad. there really is no fix except a rebuild. if the seal is leaking the bearing will be next

 

Ok thanks. What is best puller to remove the impeller from the pump?

 

On a hunch, I sprayed some liquid wrench into the area, as I thought the seal may just need "limbered" up from being in storage. I put more coolant in it, and it did not leak from the weep hole

 

It may work OK for you for a while, the seal may have just had some corrosion in it. Run it and keep an eye on the weep hole. If the cooling system is in good enough condition to where the temp never gets close to boiling I like to run them with a "no pressure" cap, and a coolant recovery system. That way there's no pressure in the system to push coolant out of what is normally a good seal at atmospheric pressure. I run both my 37 Buick and my 56 New Yorker that way, and never have overheating, or leaking issues. It's much easier on those old radiators as well.

 

This is good advice. I run my (OT?) 1963 Volvo Pv544 this way.