What is the best new or rebuilt water pump these days? I ordered a new Gates but it was defective. The impeller was rubbing on the backing plate. Do I need to find a NOS pump? Any advice would be welcome.

I don't know...
My guess would to be find someone to rebuild your if looking for the "BEST" option..

Maybe you can find a NOS one on eBay? OR something that was rebuilt years ago..

Wait a minute.. that may be bad advice:

viewtopic.php?t=63335

I've had bad luck with "Gates" pumps. Every one I have seen has been from China. Another example of slapping a formerly top of the line brand name and dragging thru the mud.
At work we have 2 choices on where to get parts/ the OEM dealer or Napa. Being a fleet mechanic for a state govt, we have to deal with contracts, and are limited in where we can access parts. The shop I work at's actual location doesn't help us much. but every water pump I have gotten from NAPA has had the gates logo imprinted onto it (though nothing on the box that has an actual brand) and I've had a few (which is a big percentage of the water pumps Ive replaced there, though) and here at the house on a side job I did Ive had Gates bite me in the arse as well, on an already crappy engine to begin with an Intrepid 2.7.... Twice. and when I looked up the choices on RA initially I thought "Ooh, look. Gates. They've always been top notch. That oughtta be a good choice of brand of pump to use here" WRONG!!!! "GMB", whose U joints I will never use again even if for free, I've had slightly better luck with their water pumps.

You ask about finding NOS parts.... You don't necessarily have to hold out for NOS parts in Mopar packaging but rather longstanding known (formerly) respected brands in old packaging, with tons of shelf dust on the boxes tends to work out the best for me. No matter what system of our cars I am working on.... on some parts shelf life can be a concern for sure. But I'd rather take that chance (so far I have been averaging pretty well) than to put my trust in newer parts coming from "over there" whenever possible.
In fact because of crappy quality of most of today's "grocery store style" parts stores and their house brands, most of which the average guy has no idea who really made them, I have been going junking at the local yards for parts that I never use dto think were "worth" getting used from a junkyard. and I'm batting about even with sustainability and longevity of used, unknown mile parts from a vehicle in a yard vs buying new parts from Useless Zone or Oreilly's.
Not everything, mind you, but more than I used to.
and one other thing.....I HATE REDO'S!!!!! and I have more these days, because of crappy parts, than I ever used to.

And current day parts across the dealer counter are no better than the grocery store parts store chain parts.
I've had several Jeeps, most with 4.0 inline 6s. A couple of Cherokees and a Wrangler. On my 2nd XJ Cherokee I went thru front rotors about every 9 months to a year. On my Wrangler and my 1st Cherokee, I had rotors that went 2-3 sets of pads, before I had to replace rotors. (all 3 of these vehicles, took the exact same pads and rotors as each other, according to the parts catalog. I had bought those rotors on my Wrangler and 1st Cherokee like 10 years prior. Then I bought the 2nd Cherokee. and I went thru 3 sets of ROTORS to 1 set of PADS. Yeah you read that right. The 1st 2 times I went to the parts store and bought them. The 3rd time I went to the DEALER and paid $50/ea vs $20/ea from the parts store. Thinking I was actually getting something better... better grade of metal, etc. Guess what? I peeled the Mopar sticker back/ and revealed the same exact parts store sticker under the Mopar sticker, as the 1st 2 sets I had bought. the last couple of sets of rotors I have had to buy for my own vehicles, I bought the EBC ones.... and not even their drilled and slotted ones. and so far, so good. and not much at all more money, than regular parts store rotors. EBC are made in the US and in England/ NOT China.
and the pads I was running on my Jeeps? Old stock Raybestos "Super Stop" I bought a pile of from Ebay since I had several vehicles that used the same parts....

this is largely why I am putting a 1985 D150 together in 2021, as my next daily driver. that truck is a known entity to me. and good, old school parts are still available for it. I might have to find them on Ebay and from horse trading with guys like you on this forum, but that has not been difficult at all so far.
at work we deal with GM vehicles and Fords. and I am sick n tired of "genuine" parts coming to me that say "Made in China".

You can't necessarily count on a brand name part, any more. Many well known companies just "license" their name, for use, by an unkown Chinese company. I went through this with Raybestos.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 225 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170

Yes all of the recent raybestos stuff I have bought recently is from china.

I am not sure where you can get north american rotors from any more. Pads... hawk, or EBC. made in usa for hawk... made in UK for ebc.


Greg

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I went through hell trying to get a thermostat earlier this year. I installed a new one from the PRC and my problems didn't change. I took it out, tested it on the stove with boiling water and a thermometer and it was NFG. I ended up buying a NOS Gates on Ebay that way made in the US of A. Seems like everything is crap these days. The only consolation is imagine 40 years from now trying to buy parts for your Tesla. Although it is getting much harder to find parts for our cars, with enough ingenuity, resilience and horse trading we can mostly find what we need. I don't think anything made today will be repairable in 40 years.

There is a guy online "The Waterpump Man" who does rebuilds. I'll probably send him a rebuildable core and see how that works.

I have bought a couple of "Flowkooler" pumps semi recently for small blocks (1-318, 1-360) dont know if they are worth it or just a gimmick, but so far, so good.
I also have one here that I intend to put on my /6 that is on the engine stand and destined for my truck. They seem to all be the "GMB" brand I mentioned earlier but they are brand new pumps that are modified and "gone thru" again after being manufactured by whoever puts the "flowkooler" style of impeller onto the pump.

I don't know what all vehicles use this design, but at work I have replaced quite a few already on the Ford "Coyote" 5.0 engines. Talk about a retarded/stupid design, they have a PLASTIC impeller. and the most recent one I have had to do, the impeller was busted off the shaft and laying in the pump well, in the front of the block.

On the older small blocks there used to be a 6 vane and an 8 vane pump. On my 78 Fury (the 318 mentioned above) when I had to replace the original pump, all I could find were 6 vane versions. as soon as I replaced the pump on that car it started running hotter. I replaced it with a FlowKooler pump but I also put a brand new, Champion, aluminum 3 row radiator into the car because all the parts stores wanted to sell me a Toyota ish aluminum with plastic tank, style of radiator. Screw that. I don't think even the Jap cars had that design of radiator yet, back in the late 1970s and really did not look like it would belong there.

The /6 I am building, is for my 85 D150. It doesn't yet have plates on it in my name, but it runs and drives as is. I did have to basically build/rebuild the underhood wiring harness almost from scratch, because it was so badly butchered when I 1st bought it. and its original /6 is such a dog. Once I get the engines swapped (and winter is safely behind us) I plan on it being a 3 season daily driver. I scout Ebay all the time, and I currently have a whole cab full of goodies/ parts made back in the day that will fit my truck. Many, from brands you no longer see these days, and other brands that are shells of their former self. but that's OK. none will go to waste. All, bought cheaper than the current crappy "equivalent" (not!) "hole fillers" that masquerade as parts claimed to fit it, currently in parts stores. and I have my eye on another square body Dodge that I am tryin to contact the owner of, to see about the possibility of being able to buy. so I'll use my stash.

You know that back in the day there were slant six pumps that had a bakelite impeller...
(I have one in my shop from a 1960's engine)

Try this: http://www.kwforkliftparts.com/waterpumps.htm Memphis. They rebuild all kinds of antique water pumps. They do all of the old stuff for John Deere. They rebuilt a 1964 Kohler generator water pump. Did not faze them. Had it back in one day.

Also Then-and-now-auto.com

Don't forget they put the slant in generators, water pumps, farm equip, etc.

Thanks for the link. Looks very useful for future ref...

Lou

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