1937 water pump issues

Posted by ElGroucho On 2021/8/24 3:03:34

So I had my water pump rebuilt twice so far. The first time I may have had the belt a little too tight which may have caused the bushing to wear prematurely. I guess? It wasn't crazy tight and it had that deflection that the manual calls out for so I don't really know. This caused it to leak as well as there was a bit of play in the shaft. Fast forward to sending it back to get the bushing replaced again,a zerk fitting installed so I could use grease instead of having to oil it and then reinstalling. I was told I could drive the car "10,000" miles before having to grease it again. I decided to install it with the belt slightly more loose. Basically loose enough to where I could turn the fan by hand with only a bit of resistance. I have only driven the car about 100 miles, if that and I just noticed that along with leaking again, there's evidence of bushing powder, it's wearing again! There's play in the shaft again from the wearing bushing! What's going on here? Is there a happy medium in belt adjustment? And just like the 3 bears it needs to be just right? Or could there be something else going on? I'm getting frustrated and discouraged trying to figure why this is happening? Also I don't know if this is important, but the rebuilder uses Teflon packing instead of that graphite packing.