[OPIES_OPEL_GT]

Water Pump Pulley problems

Main wheel that the pulley sits on for the water pump pulley and fan bolt on to, how do I remove the wheel, shaft and turbine from the water pump cover. I want to get it polished and I don't know if it is threaded or if it is pressed on. Let me know so I don't break anything. Thanks -Scott

 

[greensmurf20]

they dont come out, or atleast easy enough to be worth your effort.

 

[soybean]

Scott, it might be easier to just shoot it with chrome paint (which I did on mine), or brush it on with some of POR-15s enamel. JM2CW. Jarrell

 

[OPIES_OPEL_GT]

Does anyone know how it is together though, I am building this car as a trubute to my father for all his years of guiding me. My screen name (OPIES_OPEL_GT), Opie is my dad's nick name to all of his friends. It wil be British Racing Green just like his favorite car that he owns (1989 Jaguar XJS V12 Convertible) and will have the similar tan leather interior. I really want to do this car right the first time because I don't know how much longer he has to see it and if you look at my picture gallery you will see that I have more than my work cut out for me so if anyone knows wheather it is threaded or if it is pressed, I will go the extra mile to remove the pulley to have it done right. Besides, no offence but I really don't like chrome spray paint. Even if polishing it isn't really worth it, I don't want to regret anything I do to this car. Thank you -Scott

 

[pvcar]

i would give ogts a cal and see what they have to say they would be the ones to now how the pump is assembeled and if it is possible to take it apart, i would believe jus from the ones i see that it is press fitted on there reallllly tightly.

 

[jeff denton]

I think polishing shops just shoot the part with a stream of walnut shell material in a bead blast cabinet, it wouldn't hurt the steel parts. Maybe leave the pulley on to help protect the seal.
When I was a kid I polished the side covers on my dirt bike by hanging them on a wire from the top of the grain auger, letting wheat kernels fall on them all day as I filled the granaries. Worked great but Grandpa kind of freaked when he saw what I was doing...

 

[kwilford]

I presume when you say you want to remove the "wheel", you mean you want to disassemble the impeller, shaft and hub from the pump body. I bought a 1.9 CIH water pump repair kit off ebay (yes, I DO buy a lot of Opel stuff off eBay!) a while back to see if I could rebuild a worn out Opel water pump. I had heard that water pumps were re-buildable, but I had never tried one myself. The kit came with a new impeller, a new shaft, a new bearing and a new mechanical seal. About the only thing that needed to be re-used was the hub and the body. So, it looked like I just had to disassemble the pump and install the new components. Well, easier said than done!

I first tried to press the hub off the shaft, using my 12 ton hydraulic bearing press. No luck, but mainly because it was hard to fit a bearing splitter between the impeller and the housing. So I tried to press the hub off the shaft, also using my bearing press. Also no luck. So I tried heating the hub, and then the impeller, and pressing them off when heated. STILL no luck! And when I REALLY heated the impeller and tried to press it off, it broke, along with the pump housing.

After examining the broken parts, I could see that the hub and impeller were indeed pressed on to the shaft, and so it SHOULD have been possible to press them off. But I doubt that no matter how you tried, you could press then off and then re-use the parts.

And just so you know what else NOT to try, I also tried glass bead blasting an old pump to see if I could clean it up. But even after packing rags around the shaft, impeller and into the pump inlet, the glass bead got into the bearing, and the pump was ruined. Well, this pump was already worn out, but you could clearly hear the grit in the bearing.

My advice? Clean the pump as well as possible using solvent and then brake cleaner. If you still want it shinier, you could try aluminum engine paint (it works QUITE well, if you use the high temp manifold paint). Or just buy a new pump from OGTS (or your local auto parts store), and it will be fairly shiny already, and that much more reliable. Not polished, but you could also try that too. But THAT is a whole other thread!

Anyone done aluminum polishing (valve cover, intake manifold, timing chain case, water pump) that they would like to post some photos of the process and the tools needed? If so, start a new thread, or add it here and I will split it off to a new thread.

 

[jordan]

I may be able to help here, I like to start off by sanding the aluminium from 320-400 grit to eliminate deep casting marks then use tripoli buffing compound on a sisal or flanel wheel with a "cutting" action and that simply means holding the piece to the rotation of the wheel is going into the piece. And then "color" (holding the piece away from the rotation) to even it out, then I'll move to a flanel wheel with usually green rouge only "coloring" then a soft cotton wheel with blizzard rouge, this will put a very nice finish onto aluminium if you take your time the piece may be nearly as shiny as chrome. also red jewlers rouge will shine up chrome very nicely. the picture is of a valve cover I've been working on and it has about 2 hours of sanding with 320 then 400 grit paper most of the casting marks are out and the sanding will make the job of finer buffing much easier.