Aluminum Water Pump Pulley

[mfg]

I've owned my '63 Avanti for years. Early on the car 'ate' a couple of water pumps. (R2 engine) Quite a while back I purchased a lightweight aluminum water pump pulley from Lionel Stone, installed it with a new flanged Avanti water pump, and haven't had a problem since. I know that Studebaker balanced the original cast iron water pump pulley, but between its heavy weight, and the chance it could still be slightly off balance, I always thought that this original cast pulley was the cause of the water pump failures. Opinions?

[mfg]

Also, I did see an R2 Avanti (not mine) where the owner obtained longer supercharger belts and routed the belts OVER the water pump pulley onto a dual groove idler pulley located directly over the water pump pulley. I think the idea was to relieve the water pump of the additional strain of carrying the blower drive load.......Interesting!

[64Avanti]

The belt load on an R2 from the blower belts is very high and will result in low life compared to an R1. Of course many of us have seen a non Avanti pump used on an R2 Avanti and then due to longer distance from the pulley to the front bearing the shaft fatigues, breaks chews up the radiator and breaks the shroud or something like that!

On the water pumps the shaft forms the inner race for the ball bearings and has a groove in it and that is where it breaks.

[brad]

I would tend to agree that the weight of the heavy cast iron pulley and the additional weight of the fan and thermostatic clutch is a lot for the pump to bear.

[64Avanti]

The load from the fan and thermostatic clutch although significant is very low compared to the load from the supercharger belts.

[mfg]

The belt load on an R2 from the blower belts is very high and will result in low life compared to an R1. Of course many of us have seen a non Avanti pump used on an R2 Avanti and then due to longer distance from the pulley to the front bearing the shaft fatigues, breaks chews up the radiator and breaks the shroud or something like that!

On the water pumps the shaft forms the inner race for the ball bearings and has a groove in it and that is where it breaks.

Yes, I remember years ago a few Avanti owners installing standard duty Stude V8 pumps on their R2 Avantis....really not knowing any better...scary stuff when one thinks about it!