On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 14:46:22 +0000, Willy Eckerslyke
wrote:

unfortunately a fly press is all I have access to,

I'm sure you can find more. The force is low, you don't even need a
"press" as such. They've often been done with screw-thread pullers or
even a big vice.

They're not described in Haynes and my big black Triumph workshop manual
is up North with the Vitesse. I don't think I've ever done a Triumph one
myself (barring my infernal Dolomite Sprint) but they're all much the
same.

There's a fragile impeller at one end and a pulley bracket at the other.
One of these generally unbolts with a number of small bolts and the
other is a single central nut or bolt that can be awkward to undo, owing
to corrosion (heat can be useful). You then need a puller to get the
impeller off - be careful here, an awful lot of impellers have lost
"bite marks" from puller jaws before now. Try to get a C shaped pulling
plate under it instead, not just a couple of hooks.

There are a few pumps where the impeller is changed along with the
shaft, but this would be the rarity for "typical" cars. You might meet
one that needs to be extracted as one then dismantled on the bench to
get the impeller off.

The bearings and seal are mounted in a single sleeve which is a light
press (or even sliding) fit into the housing. There's usually a small
locking screw or wire clip (Ford cheapskates) which holds it in place.
I've rarely had to brutalise one of these assemblies to get it apart.
Some will only extract from one side - the fan pulley boss is usually
too big to fit through the body.

Re-assembly is usually a bit more careful. It's particularly important
to use a pressing sleeve (piece of pipe, toolbox socket, bit of
lathework) so that you press the _sleeve_ into the pump body, not the
shaft. Pressing on the shaft may hurt the bearings or seal. There may
also be a leakage drain hole that should be carefully re-aligned on
re-assembly.

Fly-presses work by storing momentuum in the whirling fly weights. This
is released on first contact with the press ram. They give a high
impulse at first, but they also don't drive a seal very far with one
wallop. Certainly for pressing bearing races, they're infamous as a
quick way to _really_ screw up the job.


--
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