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What is an AC Engine?
Engine Rebuilds
Blocks, Studs & Water Jackets
Spare Parts List One - Attaching Parts, Seals & Gaskets
Spare Parts List Two -
Crankshaft & Cross-shaft Assemblies
and Chains
Spare Parts List Three - Pistons & Liners
Spare Parts List Four - Sump Assembly
Spare Parts List
Five - Cylinder Head Assembly
Spare Parts List Six - Ignition,
Spare Parts List Seven - Water Pumps
Engines for Sale and
Used Parts
Parts List
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Spare
Parts List Seven - Water Pumps......
Keeping
the water going round
A
legacy of troubles
No
engine will run well or, worse, may stop altogether if it is not
adequately cooled. In the AC engine cooling water is circulated by a
pump mounted, in the case of the vintage and PVT engines, on the front of
the cylinder head, and in the post-war engines, on the side of the
block. While the vintage pumps are driven from the front of the
camshaft, the PVT and post-war pumps are each driven by V-belts powered by
a crankshaft pulley.
Different
pumps... ...same problems
All
original AC pumps have one thing in common......they are nothing but trouble!
Carbon water seals fail, pulleys, bearings and shafts wear and aluminium
casings corrode. Worse, reconditioning of the pumps to their
original condition is seldom effective for very long as the design left a
lot to be desired. Additionally, the various types of pump had
individual as well as generic issues to consider. The only solution
was to treat each each type and its problems separately. |

A
typical, very dire post-war water pump
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The
PVT pump
PVT
water pumps are generally in such bad condition when they reach us and
have often had such a variety of attempted restorations inflicted upon
them that we have found it necessary, and generally more cost-effective,
to build completely new pumps from scratch. To achieve this we have
invested heavily in casting patterns for new pump bodies, pulleys and
impellers.

New castings
ready for final machining
Within
the pump, all mechanical parts such as shafts and bearings are new and
reliable modern water seals are employed to replace the old carbon thrust
seal. This has all been achieved without altering the originality of
the appearance of the pump, so important to many owners of PVT cars. |

A
new PVT water pump
The PVT
pump has been one of our best-selling items for the pre-war cars and we
are continually making new batches in order to maintain stocks and keep up
with the demand. |
The
post-war pump
The
pumps fitted to the post-war cars are all mounted on the left-hand side of
the cylinder block but vary slightly in design, the Two Litre Saloon and
Buckland pumps having straight water intake pipes while those fitted to
the sports models (Ace, Aceca and Greyhound) have curved intake pipes. Internally the pumps can differ as well.

Sports
pump to the left, Saloon type to the right
Our
reconditioned pumps have been completely redesigned in order to eliminate
the fundamental failings of the original, namely the inadequate bearings
at the front of the pump, these now being doubled in number and contained
within an extended pulley, the replacement of the bronze bush at the rear
of the impeller shaft with one of a modern synthetic material that is
tolerant of its working environment, and a modern, one-piece seal vastly
superior to the old carbon thrust seal.
Saloon
type pumps, being the more numerous, are available on an exchange basis
(as long as the main castings are reusable), whilst customers' sports
pumps are reconditioned on request.
|

A redesigned post-war water
pump |
Proven
Reliability
One
of our redesigned pumps is fitted to the Briggs
Special and has been tested for many hundreds of trouble-free miles
on the road and in merciless use in the component-destroying environment
of the speed hillclimb, while many more of our pumps are keeping the water
going round in our customers' cars.

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Post-war
pump fitted to the Briggs Special |
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