[Healeys] Water pump leak

Michael Oritt michael.oritt at gmail.com
Wed Jul 31 15:03:33 MDT 2019


I almost hesitate to post about another problem but here goes:

Yesterday while almost done with a long ride to make sure that the brakes
were okay (they were) I got a spatter of oily drops on the windshield and
when I popped the bonnet i found a pretty liberal spray of oil across its
underside, just above the fan.  This morning after cleaning everything off
I put the car up on jack stands and ran the engine at about 2K to see if I
could find the source.

There is a slow but steady leak--perhaps a drop every three or four
seconds--coming off of the back face of the water pump pulley, which leaks
onto the fan belt and gets tossed across the engine compartment.  The
strange thing is that it does not seem like engine oil as it is brown in
color and has a definite bittersweet taste--nothing at all like the color
or taste of the engine oil.  It is sticky and looks almost like Permatex
Indian Head Gasket Shellac.

There is a grease nipple on the water pump and though I know I lubed it
when I last changed the water pump that was some time ago.  I am not
certain about the color of the grease but am thinking it was either red or
blue.

There is no oil in the water nor any water in the oil.
The leak is not coming out of the weep hole in the water pump.
The leak does not seem like oil that is emulsified--it really seems like
shellac but that makes no sense to me.

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Best--Michael Oritt (BN1)
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