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I think my water pump may be damaged or broken. I'm looking for advice on how to trouble shoot it. It seems to be making a clanking noise, the top hose is hot while the bottom one is still cool and in short time I start blowing coolant out of the overflow. Is it necessary to remove the radiator to remove the water pump. Anybody got any ideas on possible options for either fixing or finding another pump? Thanks

Can you take a picture of your pum? I may have one that needs to be rebuilt.

An infrared thermometer would be my first step. You can get them cheap, like $25 at Home Depot, and will register the temperature of any surface you shoot it at. What I would do is run the engine for 15 minutes, then use the IR thermometer to take the temperature at the top hose, then work your way down and across the radiator till your at the bottom hose. The top hose will receive the hot coolant from the head, the bottom hose puts the cooler coolant back in the engine after it circulates through the radiator. The idea is that if bottom temp is still room temperature, but the top is 150 degrees, then that tells me the pump isn't circulating well. If the bottom is warmer - say 120 degrees -- then the pump probably is working. If your car has a water jacket, then, on mine at least, it can be removed and the impeller on the water pump be viewed. Don't know why the pump would be clanking unless the shaft/bushing is so worn that the shaft is banging back and worth while operating (?) Might be a good time to drain all the coolant, remove the jacket, back flush the radiator, clean out crud in the head, and inspect the water pump while your at it.

No, it is not necessary to remove the radiator in order to remove the water pump. Remove the fan blades and belts, remove the 5 nuts holding the pump retaining collar, and then just lift the pump out.

OK, I'm going to reveal my ignorance. How do I know if my car has a water jacket?

Your "water jacket" on your style of engine is more commonly called the side plate and is the long metal plate, the full length of the engine, on the driver's side just below the head (see photo). Attached to it (if your car is stock) is the heat exchanger or oil cooler. The water jacket plate encloses the water passages within the block, it's often a significant chore to remove, commonly resulting in some of the small bolts breaking off in the block. And the plate on the 1934 is also a unique one, one year only, as it's the only year that the oil cooler was attached to it. Removing it is almost necessary if the cooling passages of the block need thorough cleaning, though you might try chemical agents first and hopefully avoid having to remove it, assuming that's the cause of your problems.

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Thank you for taking the time to provide the picture and the explanation. It is most helpful. So, yes, my car has the water jacket but for whatever reason it does not have the oil cooler as shown in your picture. Instead there is a plate installed there. I have no idea if it originally had the oil cooler or if Packards might not have all had it. Perhaps you know. Instead of taking the water jacket off I was wondering about pulling the pump off of the front. One of the other responders says the radiator does not need to be removed to do that, although there does not appear to be a lot of clearance between the fan and the radiator. Another random tidbit of information that I got on line (so I don't know the true value of it) is that the pump blades are indexed onto the shaft with a pin or something and sometimes that comes off? I will send a couple of pictures later. Thank you again.

The oil cooler on the water jacket plate was standard equipment so unfortunately your car has been modified to remove it. That's a shame, its a unique feature of the 1934 eight cylinder models. Since the oil cooler also mounted the oil filter, I wonder what they did with that? 1934 was the first year for a full-flow filter.

If your engine was professionally rebuilt, the chances are excellent that the side plate was removed and the coolant passages cleaned.

I was the source of the note about not having to remove the radiator to remove the water pump, its a tight fit but routinely done. Removing the radiator is a very major job as its removed as a unit with the shell and shutters. And yes, the pump impeller is located on the shaft via a special cone-nosed set screw.

Yes, the IR thermometer would test the effectiveness of the water jacket as well. The water jacket has a baffle in it that receives the cool coolant (from the bottom hose of the radiator) and disperses it evenly across the head, front to back. This is done by a series of 5/8" holes drilled in the baffle and directed at each cylinder. Frequently, the baffle is rotted out which permits uneven dispersion of the coolant and therefore unequal cooling across the head. If the baffle were totally rotted, then the front of the head would be cool, and the rear much hotter. The IR temperature from front to rear should be a consistent, perhaps around 125.

Thank you for your insight. So, my car does not have the oil cooler, but instead as a plate mounted on the same bolt patters. On that plate is mounted a 'modern' oil filter which has been completely bypassed....so in other words the only oil filtration seems to be the little basket in the bottom of the oil pan. So, I'm wondering if its even possible to find one and assuming I don't, what risk am I running? I would like to find an oil filter for the car though.

So, combining what everyone is saying, it sounds like a course of action might be to start the car again and check various locations with an IR thermometer. Then assuming it shows inconsistencies remove the water pump and or water jacket to actually see the condition of the equipment?

Thanks to everyone for giving this some thought and taking the time to provide me with information and insight.