Water pump weep hole?

[brucejohn]

The old girl, 82 SIII 2-1/4 petrol 109, moved onto a IIa chassis is going back together. She started up yesterday for the first time in three months, ran smooth once she warmed up too.

Unfortunately, she is leaking coolant from a small weep hole on the underside of the water pump's shaft housing. I checked my IIa 2-1/4 petrol's water pump and it has the same weep hole. I assume the packing dried out while she was sitting. Any opinions on whether the packing will swell and seal up or should I just order a rebuilt from our fine hosts and WAIT ANOTHER WEEK to drive her off the ranch?

[Bertha]

You will need a new pump. No point in rebuilding one, the aftermarket one from out hosts looks identical to the original (even has "Rover" and the part number cast into the pump as original), and its less than 100.00.

[scott]

my used "working" water pump sat on a shelf for 6 months while i had the engine rebuilt and then got around to reinstalling it. like the cheap, i mean thrifty guy i am i reinstalled to old pump. using no antifreeze during the shake down (again thrifty here) the pump weep the first time i fired it up. cursed myself for not putting on a new pump in the first place. drove it as it was figuring i was just leaking water no biggie. after a couple of weeks it stopped leaking. drove around for another couple of weeks and figured it'd be safe to drain and put in sume antifreeze/coolant. the very next day it didn't weep it gushed. putting a new pump on whilst it was on the engine stand would have taken about 5 minutes. working under the hood i think took me 1 hr 40 min.

[brucejohn]

Like you Scott I am beyond the stand already. I ran her good yesterday to test pulling fuel from the second tank I added and she had stopped leaking, though I can hear the water pump whining now. Fortunately, I haven't bolted down the front end yet, so I will have easy access.