water pump pulley alignment

[BigErch]

Hi,

I've just swapped out the water pump with a reconditioned one from SJ Sports cars and the pulley on the new pump does not line up with the crank pulley groove and vacuum pump pulley groove to which it's supposed to share a belt. I's about 5mm forward of the other two!

I gave SJ the engine number from my 1989 Esprit Turbo so I'm hoping I have the right part. Does anyone know if there are variations on waterpumps around this time?

SJ say that my old water pump must have been replaced at one time and probably isn't standard. This doesn't explain why the new pump does not even line up with the crankshaft pulley which is a standard lotus part which I have also just replaced.

cheers, Arch

[mc21.8]

+1 mate sounds like there talking ****t to me been asembled wrong or perhaps aircon diffrence poss ?or got the wrong pully on?compare to your old one..if you int sent it ex..!!!!!!!!

[lotus4s]

Part of the process in rebuilding the water pump involves removing the pulley from the bearing shaft and pressing it onto a new one. It needs to be set to a specific dimension from the pump housing to retain the correct belt alignment. Sounds like they did not do that.

In order to correct the problem, you'll need to determine how much it needs to move, remove the pump and then using a hydraulic press, push the pulley further onto the shaft. Be sure to have something pushing on the bottom of the shaft at the other end and not the pump housing as it it possible to push the whole bearing further into the pump which you don't want to do. You only want to move the pulley on the shaft.

Or send it back and have them send you another one...

[dodge1979]

Exactly as above, I reconditioned my own pump with a kit from lotusbits, however I advertandly pushed my pully 1mm too far down, so spaced it out on assembly to the engine when I found this out.now it lines up perfectly. Am I right in thinking pre 92 or 93 cars had a difference in their pumps or was it just a casing difference. I may have just imagined that though. But ill say one thing, I havent found steve that helpfull at times...the attitude of im right your wrong seems common...

[BigErch]

I've been really busy at work this month so I've not had a chance to look at the again.

I guess I have no choice but to strip it all down again and send the pump back to SJ. In hindsight I should have removed the engine cause I would have seen the mis-alignment before putting it back. It would have been easy to replace too. It would be nice if SJ appologised but I'm not holding my breath.

[Ginger pig]

Hi Archie, I had an issue which had me scratching my head when trying to allign the water pump pulley wheel.......after close scrutiny I realised that although the pulley can go on either way around there is only one way it should go as it is shallower one side.