i have an 83 camaro with a slightly worked 305 with a 4-bbl. my water pump went bad and i just replaced it. i already am hearing a little noise from the bearing and am afraid this one is going bad too. the one thing im really thinking may be causing the failure is the fact that i pulled of my ac compressor so the only v-belt running on the pump is for the alternator. do you all think that since the pulley on the pump is only being pulled in one direction and not the other, may be the cause to a water pump failure?

 

It's possible that the bearing is being fatigued from being pulled in one direction. Make sure the belt isn't overly tight.

 

x2 but unless you are superman it is not very likely, maybe you bought a crummy rebuilt pump?

 

Is the belt too tight? that's the only way it'd do that unless it is a crappy water pump. Which is very likely.

 

I am having the same problem with my '86 (305). She really likes to over heat and purge antifreeze from the back, damn midas< these guys have all kinds of tools and car lifts and still manage a shitty job. My next step is to get the heavy duty waterpump. Also I think my timing might be off, but I need a weekend to quirk that. Let me know of what you find out.

 

well what did they change? Throw a 180 thermostat in it. is the fan working? are you sure its overheating or is the gauge inaccurate? a lot of variables

 

they changed the all the hosed, they said that. When I got her home she had that little hose in the front leaking, the lower hose wasn't even touched, and then just ran the heater hose right over the engine (at least cutting a liter or so of coolant in the system). I did the thermostat myself with a 195 fail safe. Also in working on the front engine I broke that sending unit for the guage so that ones brand new. This morning when she started up she squealed for a good 3 agonizing minutes.

 

The squeal could be from coolant on the belt. Unless you have a chirping sound when you spin the pulley I wouldn't worry too much. But if you have an itemized bill of the work and it's obvious they didn't do something go back.