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.
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