I'm answering my own technique questions from last post and reporting a successful packing job, without a painstaking disassembly of the water pump (and with only one mistake). Again thanks to Myers Early Dodge for the packing cord. Tom Myers confirmed I should use the cut-and-stack technique I'd seen in commercial pump vids. The packing cord is woven 4-sided square. I don't own a caliper, so I took a piece of light wire to measure the shaft diameter. My mistake was, I cut a piece of packing cord the same length as the wire, which did not account for the difference in thickness, so the piece I cut was too short. Correcting for length, I was able to carefully insert 2 rounds of packing, one at a time. I made sure the cut gaps were 180 from each other. I used 2 screwdriver blades, one to press the packing into the gland bit by bit and the other to hold the packing against the shaft keeping it round. This took careful hand/eye coordination but really wasn't all that hard. After the first cut, I used the collar and nut to tamp the packing. This made room for the second round. The 2nd piece tucked just flush into the gland, then I tamped again. The packing from Myers was more than enough for 4 cuts (both sides of pump) even with the wasted first piece I cut. I hand tightened the packing nuts; put just a little more with wrench (mebbe a 1/8 turn). I removed and cleaned the zerk fittings, pumped a little grease in. I put 1 gal of coolant in radiator, and started the engine. (DRUMROLL) No Leaks!
I can't close without repeating my rant about the horrible packing job I discovered in my pump. Even tho' it was very very old, I could tell they'd spiraled in pieces of cord, I found 2 different diameters, both inside the gland were it belongs, but also inside the packing nut itself! Don't pack inside the packing nut!
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