Anytime I buy and resurrect an old car that's been in storage for many years I go ahead and replace the water pump right away, even if it seems t be doing ok.

I've been crazy busy, so this got delayed on my 66 (I've been driving it to work for about a month now.)

One the way to work on Friday, a distinctive sound of a bearing going out was coming from the engine bay and then on the way home it got progressively worse.

When I got home I raised the hood and gave the fan a good tug back and forth and it had a HUGE amount of play in it.....YIKES! So, I ordered up a new water pump from OReillys and installed it this morning.

What shocked me was when I pulled the old pump off this morning. The bearing was sticking almost all the way out (see the photo below), but it wasn't leaking, and was still pumping water well enough that the truck was perfectly cool!

It's amazing how tough these old Ford straight sixes and their components are.

 

I had to replace the water pump on one of my 66's with a 352. It never did leak, but the bearing got so loose that the fan started vibrating and the whole truck was "buzzing" down the road.

 

Must be something about the way these pumps are set up. With most of the other cars I've had, when the pump goes, it goes completely and quickly.

I got to thinking about it today and I realized that since my truck only has 60K original miles....this was probably the original equipment water pump from 1966. I verified this by looking through the extensive pile of receipts for the truck dating back to the late 60s....and sure enough....no record of them ever replacing the pump.

Now I feel kind of bad for throwing it away....maybe I should go dig it out of trash.

 

Wow, the one on my 292 in a '60 Edsel I have seemed like the loosest one ever to have not leaked. Yours has to be the worst non-leaking water pump of all time. You win!

Funny, seems brand X pumps would leak long before they are that bad. Built Ford Tough!

Jim