marvmul Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 Recently I bought 2 new 'County' waterpumps for my TR3, one of them was leaking after just one race : I kept it as a spare and fitted the other new one : after one or two races, the ball bearings were shot : I had fitted new bearings in it and used this pump in my freshly rebuild engine : from the onset the water temperature was too high and after some running in, the water temperature was in the red after just 2 minutes idling. After a lot of checking and searching I noticed that the impeller had moved on the spindle and that it had been running against the pump house : it was freely turning on the spindle. Drilling a hole trough the spindle to fit a pin was very easily : extremely soft steel. I momentarily fitted the first leaking new pump : the water temperature was too high also and you can gess it : the impeller on this pump was loose too. So this pumps seem to have very soft spindles, bad bearings and bad sealings. 'County' is the brand most specialists are selling today : I wonder what the experiences of other people are? "You are the first to complain, sir" is the standard answer you get from them : instead it would be very useful if the sellers would do some registering of the faults and problems with reproduction parts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Don Elliott Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 When I bought a replacement water pump in 1988 from Cox & Buckles, I noticed the new pump had a cast-iron impeller whereas the original one was made of cast brass. Since I had gone through 2 or 3 water pumps in the first 80,350 miles from new, I had a shop make a new pump shaft out of stainless steel. It was here that I noticed that the original brass impeller was larger than the new cast iron impeller. So the new shaft was turned to accept the brass impeller. The stainless shaft will never rust down in diameter so the seal will never leak. The larger impeller will pump as much fluid as it was designed to do and since doing this, I have had no problems in over 82,000 additional miles. Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A, Montreal, Canada Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mychael Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 I had a mate here in Australia describe the same thing. It was a "new" pump, I don't know from whom,same thing the impeller was loose on the shaft. Piece of junk. Mychael Quote Link to post Share on other sites
unclepete Posted March 24, 2005 Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 have you come across the multi blade impeller replacement pumps yet - they are suposedly twice as efficient? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mychael Posted March 24, 2005 Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 I've not heard of them but am currently researching electric water pumps which fit inline. Mychael Quote Link to post Share on other sites
marvmul Posted March 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 Unclepete, the u/r pumps with multiblade impeller are not available at the moment (at least not through Cambridge Motorsport). Instead of buying a replacement pumps, I'll try to find such an impeller, replace the standard bearings with SKF or other quality bearings and fit a stainless spindle suggested by Don Eliott and Jean. A friend of mine will convert the pulley to get a wider diameter (14cm instead of10cm). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
whiteone Posted March 24, 2005 Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 Mychael, It will be interesting to hear your findings regarding in-line electric water pumps. They seem to be coming more available in the UK - I heard of them being available in Australia first. I assume you are considering a full flow inline pump. Manufacturers now seem to be fitting them in the cooling de-gas or bypass circuits in order to remove local "hot-spots" primarily in the cylinder head when a hot engine is switched-off (with a timer). If you are considering an "in-line" electric pump will this be in either the top or bottom hose in addition to the existing water pump? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mychael Posted March 24, 2005 Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 The pump (as far as I am aware) can go into either hose. It can be a standalone system or added to excisting system (which I think I'll do). It's big advantage is that it can maintain a good water flow when the manual pump cannot Ie at idle, it also can have a controller unit installed so that it switches in at a set temp and can also have a "run-on" period after switching engine off to avoid sudden heat soak. I have spoken to Davies-Craig (the ausssie manafacturers), they have advised me it will allow flow through when it's not actively pumping itself. It's supposed to have a cycle life of about 2yrs or 1,500 hrs. Mychael Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest chris jameson Posted March 25, 2005 Report Share Posted March 25, 2005 Marvmul, I agree with your assessment of the County water pump...I bought one (marked County 2), and the impeller was turning on the shaft...no great problem I thought, simply drill it and fit a roll pin... But then the pump leaked... : ( I then bought a `no name' repro which has been fine... Cheers, Chris Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jean Posted March 26, 2005 Report Share Posted March 26, 2005 Electric water pumps are available since quite some time, the first I saw was about 5 years ago on a TR250. Lately I saw one mentioned in Classic and Sports Car. It's called a Davis Craig electric water pump available from Demon Tweeks and several other suppliers. These pumps are not approved for international competition as far as I heard. Jean Quote Link to post Share on other sites
unclepete Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 something to bare in mind. the thermostat on the original 3a, i don't know about the others, has a section which closes off the bypass port when up to temperature. fitting a replacement may work and fit fine but if its not the right type, some water flow may be bypassing the rad causing all sorts of overheating problems and costly 'solutions'. taking out the stat completely also causes the same flow bypass so check it out next time you have the housing off. pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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