Home away from home 
Joined:
2016/10/28 6:26
Last Login
:
Today 11:21
From Hemmingen, Germany
Group:
Registered Users
|
Don, thank you for your words of appreciation for my work and I am happy that I still get to read a comment every now and then.
Water Pump and Cooling System
After I bought the “Sport”, the previous owner wanted to bring it to me on his own wheels. However, this journey only lasted a few kilometers. Then the radiator burst due to engine overheating and the coolant almost completely ran out. The car made its last journey with the engine and on its own wheels after it was unloaded from the trailer into my workshop. When the individual components of the vehicle and the engine were dismantled, the reasons for the overheating became clear.
The cooling water cycle could not take place for 3 main reasons. The water pump was only partially functional because the impeller could hardly build up pressure in its cage. On the one hand, the distance between the housing wall and the impeller was too large. On the other hand, parts of the rotation cage, in which the pressure or water transport is to be generated, were so rusted that individual parts were no longer in their place. A “restorer” had the brilliant idea of gluing them in place with sanitary silicone and then using the same silicone to place and glue the water pump into the engine block. After removal, the individual parts of the wing cage fell apart.
Secondly, the cylinders of the engine/cast block were covered with a layer of rust on the outside, which severely restricted cooling in the most important area. (Rust layers act like insulation layers here)
And thirdly... and this was the main reason for the entire cooling problem... the cooling fins of the radiator were about half blocked by deposits in the upper area and almost completely blocked in the lower area. In addition, an unprofessional repair had been carried out on the radiator by... instead of removing the completely dilapidated lower water tank and making and installing a new one... some hobbyist had probably made a second tank out of thin brass sheet and soldered it over the rotten original lower water tank.
To repair the water pump, I rebuilt the rusted and broken parts of the impeller cage out of 4mm flat steel, built them true to the original and welded them in, and soldered in other parts with silver solder. The blades of the brass impeller were worn in the heavily used areas. I filled these again with silver solder and thus optimized the distance to the cover surfaces.
The axle shaft was heavily worn and corroded in the area of the sealing surfaces. I restored a Ford Model A water pump some time ago and installed the repair kit offered by Ford. I thought of this when I saw the shaft of my "Sport" and was looking for the old Ford water pump shaft. I never throw away such parts... because of the quality of the steel, they are easy to convert into tools. To my surprise, the Ford shaft had exactly the same diameter as the shaft in the Packard. And what was even better: The Ford shaft was so much longer that I could easily convert the Ford shaft into the Packard shaft. The repair kit for the Ford shaft also included the improved seal with two shaft seals. In the rear part of the water pump housing, I made a new bearing bushing out of sintered bronze. This gave the shaft a new bearing bushing at the front and behind it the precisely fitting holder for the two shaft seals, which can be seen in photo ...769... top right next to the new bearing bushing.
To press and seal the shaft between the shaft seals and the newly manufactured brass union nut, I made the small component that can be seen on the right in the same photo. I filled the space between the shaft seals with a special shaft grease, as is used in water pumps in the seawater sector/boat building.
In order to give the engine compartment a true-to-original look, I searched for a long time for the link chain V-belt that was used at the time. I even corresponded with a man in the USA who was involved in the production of these belts many years ago. But even he no longer knew where belts of this size were still produced. I then found this belt at a company in England. It looks exactly like the original. However, it no longer consists of 3mm thick leather parts, but of several layers of fabric that are embedded in a Coutchouc-Rubber Mixture, which makes it significantly more durable.
Karl
Posted on: Today 11:20
|
k-P1030759.JPG (137.54 KB)
