Lambda Water Pump - Use of Modern Seal

[Peter Makeham]

I wish to upgrade my spare Lambda water pump using a modern seal.  I rebuilt the pump in my Lambda 25 years ago using  Fordson tractor seal which is still working well, but I am sure that there are more modern seals about.  I would appreciate any advice on which modern seal to use.  Peter Makeham

[johnturner]

I once enquired about the specification of the 'Palmetto' which the handbook recommends for packing the water pump and was told that it was simply corda grassa, or the sort of greasy string you can get from any steam engine fitters.  But if you don't have a steam fitters down the road ordinary modern lip seals seem to work perfectly well and can be fitted into the original housing. If you cart the bits down to your local bearing shop they should be able to fit you up. The seals do depend on the shaft running true and it was fashionable at one time to machine away the body to take a new shaft assembly with sealed caged bearings but I am not convinced that this is needed and the damage is pretty well irreversible. Since the shaft is running in water, nylon will in theory provide a better bearing than the original bronze and on this assumption I have fitted nylon bushes in the engine I am building for the Weymann, but this too is probably a pointless elaboration.  Given the sort of annual mileage we do now a new stainless shaft and a housing bushed back to standard should work well enough.

[davidwheeler]

I have just rebuilt my Aprilia water pump using a standard lip seal obtained from my local bearing shop.  As the system is not under pressure I am assured that this will work perfectly well and I understand that this is the sort uf seal used in modern water pumps.  Obviously the shaft has to be smooth and true.  So far so good...