I've been fighting a leaking water pump on my new D2 5U and now have the pump off the tractor again for the 4th time, I've tried a variation of new seals and bellows but always end up with a drip out the drain hole and now suspect the pump shaft might be bent and hopefully today I'll confirm that, interestingly there is no obvious damage to the fan blades suggesting it might have eaten a branch in a former life but this tractor was used on a shrimp farm in the tropics so it's quite possible it has been driven through deep water.

I had a spare D2 water pump here so I got busy yesterday to pull the shaft and had a bit of a challenge removing the old rusted impeller but got it off eventually, it is obviously one of the newer and improved impellers with the ceramic seal while my pump has the original bronze impeller which I'll need to use again but I can see the "new" shaft has no keyway cut for the impeller and I wanted to know if I should get one cut in it to better secure the impeller, what do you experts think?

I was talking recently about Cat Classic Parts not being the same quality as the original parts and you will see in the photo the old water pump bearing and the new Classic Part bearing, 10 balls compared to 7, quite a difference, I think I'll go to sealed 6305 bearings when I put this pump back together to get away from the ongoing grease issue.
Thanks
Mike

Mike I just had a thought!,How much did you machine off the face of the impellar?.once the impellar is all the way home on the taper I wonder if it still has enough pressure on the face of the seal.
Lachlan

Hi Lachlan, Good point, I reckon there was about 10 thou taken off the face and when I fit the impeller there is still a good 1/4" crush on the bellow spring, this last time we put the pump together we used a slightly longer boot and spring thinking it would fix the problem for sure but it was actually worse.

Unfortunately I couldn't check the shafts for straightness today, my Fitter and Turner neighbor must have been away fishing all weekend so I'll need to wait till he is around.
regards
Mike

Ok sending you some pics of some seals I found today.not sure whether they are oem or not but here r the measurements.

Thanks Lachlan, did your impeller have a keyway and was it bronze or cast iron?
regards
Mike

Had a Keyway and was Bronze

"Mike wrote:

Thanks Lachlan, did your impeller have a keyway and was it bronze or cast iron?
regards
Mike

Mike would it be possible that the coolant may be coming up through the keyway? Also if that new shaft had been made by someone and the taper slightly different that may not help.I would colour the shaft taper in with a texta than put impeller on loosley by hand and turn it.This will show up any high spots.

Morning Lachlan, thanks for the texta suggestion, I'll try it, there is a seal that sits under the brass nut and heavy washer that in theory seals the taper and keyway, I haven't tried the "new" non keyway shaft yet other than a quick test fit of the impeller, but before I pulled the impeller off the "old" keyway shaft 2 days ago I set up my dial indicator on it and was seeing a 10 thou high spot for about half the radius as I slowly rotated it, that doesn't mean the seal running face has a 10 thou high or low spot but it might be a few thou, enough to allow a drip to escape every few seconds.

I need to test the straightness of both shafts somehow without access to my neighbors metal lathe, I'll also check the impeller because someone may have tried to pry it off with a crowbar previously and put a bend in it too, I'm really curious to know if that impeller will work long term without being secured by a keyway, I must confess I'm not super confident but then I'm not very bright either.
regards
Mike

A dry taper fit secured with a nut will definitely hold. Bob

Mike,How is the Water pump coming along? Curious to know how you got on with it.