Water Pump Restrictor Plate

[Andy W.]

Well,
After 115K miles, I'm finally replacing my water pump. I've never had a cooling problem. Well I've got a surprise. Has anyone ever seen a removeable restrictor plate.








Any feeback would be great, I've never seen this peice before.

Thanks,
-Andy

[TheMexicanJob]

The pic doesn't load. If it's what i think it is, it is not supposed to be removable, that's what i thought, a week later my car overheated. Replace the housing.

[morbid]

Heh.. yeah, it's pressed in and shouldn't move. I had a swirling/rattling sound coming from my w/p. I figured it was the reducer cone... and it had sliced up the housing pretty good. The full kit (w/p, housing, both big hoses) isn't that much... like $70 or so from Bill J. It was actually cheaper than any place near by, just for the w/p.

[amarv12]

Ya, I don't think that thing should be removable. I believe that Jim (Big Jim) commented on this issue on the old forums.

I replaced my water pump this summer (thought it was the black plastic, but found out it was white) and that piece could be wiggled a little, but was secure in the housing.

EDIT: Morbid got to it first, but ya, the Bill J deal is a good one, the hoses and the full sealed housing for like $70ish, and ridiculously fast shipping as usual.

[Big Jim]

Yes, that's how I found mine when I changed it a long time ago. It had about 80,000 miles on it and it has 222,000 miles on it now.

I was trying to change only the rear part with the impeller, pulley, and bearing only without changing the entire pump. I bought the entire pump, but was trying to take a shortcut. When I pulled the old pump apart, the stainless steel ring fell out.

The plate is held in place by staking the housing, expanding the housing metal against the plate, holding it tightly. I felt that I did not have good access to stake it back in place with a punch or chisel withpout removing the housing. Since that would require removing the housing from the car, I just went ahead and installed the new one instead.

Look at the inside of the housing and the see for yourself. You may feel that you can stake the plate back in without removing it from the car.

I have had no waterpump trouble since replacing it.

[Andy W.]

Thanks all,
I'll be pulling the housing out tomorrow and seeing if it can be presed back in. If not I'll be calling around to Ford's in the morning.

Thanks all,
-Andy

[EuroTour]

My first thought when opening this thread was: "Took the restrictor plate off to give the Red Dragon a little more juice. But it's not exactly street legal, so keep it on the down low".

[Desiato]

My opinion is that it's worth a little extra time, effort and money to replace the entire housing now and eliminate all uncertainties about overheating in the future.

[TheMexicanJob]

Replace the housing. Trust me.

[morbid]

I had previously just replaced the w/p... but it had a slight leak from the mating surfaces. Before I could get around to remounting it, it started with the rattle... and I replaced the whole thing. I wish I would have just gotten the entire kit from the start.