VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 water pump packing

How do you repack the water pump on my 1928 Chevy? Are there special tools to purchase and remove/install the packing? thanks for your input.

I personally use dentist tools that I get when they can no longer use them. They give them to me. There are strong hooks that I can use to dig out the old packing. Once removed you can get an idea of the amount of wear and roughness on the shaft. If any roughness or obvious wear then the shaft needs to be smoothed or replaced.

I have used a rope type water pump material (some with graphite and some without), metal ring type packing, and a few other things over the years.

I will see what tools the dentist may have to give me. I might as well try to get something back for all the money I have spent over the years!
The rope type packing I am use to was used on packing for water faucets years ago. I tried the water pump packing from a Chevy parts supplier and it was not the rope type. I will look for some rope type. Thanks for the dental pick suggestion.

The packing from the parts supplier sounds like the proper packing. Faucet packing is not made for fast revolutions and will cause more wear to the shaft.

Ok, I think that cleaning out the packing gland nut and gland will aid the installation of new packing from a Chevy supplier. thanks

I was able to clean out all of the old packing in the packing nut with a small dental tool. I also took fine emery cloth to clean up the the water pump shaft and install the packing. I did not use the graphite rope packing as no one in the hardware store knew that the packing was used on old faucet handles to keep them from leaking.
I did brush in some white lithium grease inside the packing nut which made the packing slide into the nut without breaking it. The truck did not over heat with a half hour test drive!
I did not know about air being sucked into the radiator through bad water pump packing.
I am learning a lot from the forum.

Good job. Because all modern vehicles with radiators have pressurized cooling systems, pumps have double seals and there are overflow tanks air in cooling systems is rarely a problem. Therefore, very few are aware of the problem and its symptoms.