Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Silver disc inside water pump housing - loose?

Manage to change my water pump yesterday. Much more challenging than I anticipated. When I did it before I just got the pump, which fits up between all the stuff thats there, but this time around I got the entire assy, and it won't clear the MLPS without removing it (or the coolant tube running in front of the radiator.

The car now runs back in cooling where I'd expect.

Question I have is, did a post mortem on the old pump and found the silver disc inside the old housing affixed to the fins of the pump. I don't know if its supposed to do that or not. There's a nice valley it sits in, but mine was not there, it was sucked up and affixed to the pump.

Is that normal? Should the disc/saucer thing be free to float, or should it be affixed to the middle of the housing as a sort of dam between the two sides?

The pump itself is fine, no real detioration that I notice, and its not spinning on the shaft or wobbling. Dunno where the black stuff in the reservoir came from, maybe left over in the system from last time. Did a good clean out/flush and I'll watch it.

Scott

I've read of a few that had that disc come loose. How long did your pump last? Mine blew up at 39K miles years ago.

The first pump I replaced at about 70 k just out of fear since all those black pumps were failing with minimal warning.

This time its been about a month, so about 120k, that its been running "warm". I believe that the problem was the disc detaching and hooking to the pump, I don't think the pump was to blame.

39k sounds low unless you had a black impeller. If you did, all bets are off.

However, cooling systems are fickle things, and you have to change the coolant frequently to prevent corrosion. Many folks don't, which can lead to build up in the radiator, damage the water pump, etc.

Scott

I just replaced my water pump as well. I bought an entire pump housing from Tousley Ford. My old one had this disc loose as well and it was really rusty. I took the case apart of the new one I just had got from Ford and the disc was fixed in place, but was rusty as well (must have been from the moisture getting into the housing). Anyhow I noticed that the pump on the new one had a plastic impellar so I replaced it with a water pump from Napa for $66 that had a metal impellar. Now with a new case and a new metal impellar pump I think my car should have no cooling problems for at least 60k. If your disc was loose I would buy a new water pump assembly from Ford. It will come with new hoses, new case and an updated pump (it will still have a plastic impellar) Call Tousley Ford and you'll get a hell of a deal, 1-800-328-9552 ask for Steve or Mike M. make sure to mention SVTperformance.com

Thanks for the feedback.

Just to be clear, I replaced the water pump + housing with a new unit from ford. I only took the old one apart for my own edification. The old housing is in the trash, and the WP is on the shelf "just in case" something goes haywire.

I left the new one assembled as delivered with plastic impeller, as my plastic impeller (white) lasted 50k miles, which is fine with me. If it fails I'll look into it then.

Scott

Avu3,

You would be hard pressed to see a failure of the white impellar in 50K, or even 150K.

I can count the number of documented white impellar failures on one hand.