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I have a customer here who bought a 1948 Mercury Street rod. The problem is the water pump is out. The water pump says lil John on it, which is referring to John Buttera who was a custom auto builder. He has since passed. I am wondering if anyone has seen his work, and if anyone knows if there are parts out there available. Before you say Ebay or the like it has been already checked. If I have to change the water pump to something else, I am going to have to change the timing cover, alternator brackets, air conditioning brackets. I have also been in contact with Chris Coddington, which is Boyd Coddington's son, who now runs the Coddington business. Boyd and John were good friends, he is checking on some stuff for me also. Just trying to see if anyone else has any ideas for parts.

Sometimes I look to Jeggs to solve issues like this. I'm also lucky enough to associate with a bunch of drag racers and they know a bunch of old time builders that are more than willing to dig through barns full of parts to help out. There are more companies than Jeggs out there and I've always found what I'm looking for. Like you I don't want to build something that I'll never be able to duplicate later down the road.

While I have not worked on this particular model, in the past when we had a vehicle that needed a water pump for which there was not a catalogue application, we were able to identify a casting number on the pump somewhere and find a replacement part that way. Not sure if that will work in your situation or not but for us, it took some digging but we usually can locate what we need if there is numbers on the pump somewhere.

Just thought about it also. Is there a possibility of getting that one rebuilt somewhere? There was a company in central PA close to Harrisburg that did it for us a number of years ago. Smith Rebuilders or something like that was the name if I recall correctly. I know I had a fellow with an old Farmall tractor that he couldn't get a new pump so I sent his old pump to this company an they rebuilt it for us.

My father in law is an old motor head. When we had issues ID-ing something crazy on his T-bucket or his "Mob cars" we would call Summit. The tech guys there are incredible. Email them a picture of it, they may be able ID that way.


http://www.summitracing.com/search/depa ... =Ascending

http://www.jegs.com/c/Cooling-AC-Heating/10109/10002/-1

http://www.kelloggautomotive.com/ (pump rebuilders)

This is a custom made housing and everything. Yes I was finally able to get it apart, and we have measured everything. The only way I have found the parts is to buy a water pump, disassemble the new one and then rebuild the old one.

wild

So far measurements come up to a 6 cylinder gm water pump. I will keep you posted on what happens.

Here is the partially assembled new custom water pump. Now to see if it holds. 2 different water pumps to make one!

I've always been successful in sending out old units to reliable rebuilders. I've sent things to Cardone through my parts supplier and have had them rebuilt.

I have not had much hope in Cardone lately. A guy at the parts store and a local machinist were the 2 biggest help in this one. Even the impellers had to be shaved a bit in diameter to get them to fit properly.

A totally off the wall point here. Was the impeller balanced? I know it sounds wild but it may vibrate enough to cause sealing issues.

Here is the finished project. Car runs out good down the road. Yes it was all balanced and cleaned and put together nicely.

Nice work....

Nice work. Posts like this make me want to get back into working on these type of vehicles. Then I remember all the aggravation I've experienced in the past. Suddenly it's something I wish I didn't get involved with and I get all stressed out, swear I'll never do it again. This cycle repeats itself about every 5 years. I compare it to child birth. I'm in the delivery room watching my wife's eyes roll back in her head while she's screaming at me, telling me I did this to her, she's going to kill me when she's able, all this bodily fluid all over the place and this alien thing come sliding out and I just freeze and certain parts of my body start doing things I never thought possible. Then a year later just as I'm getting over all this my wife tries to convince me it wasn't that bad and we should have another

I have a 1941 Dodge WC truck that is on a 1989 S10 frame that I will post some pictures of on here that I am currently working on. Then I think Friday I have a 1969 Mercury Marauder X100 coming in for a water pump. If the body shop gets finished with it by then. Got to love when the season changes to nice around here, all the oldies break out.