Sherwood water pump for 292 Interceptor

Greetings all,

I was hoping to find out how people are dealing with the Sherwood split circuit water pump that is impossible to find replacement parts for. Is there a stash somewhere of spare parts that people are able to rebuild pumps from or is there a common retrofit?

I am currently looking to rebuild/replace two pumps, part numbers M10270G and M10280G (left and right hand rotation).

A little back story: My parents just picked up a 1949 Chris Craft 36' Quarterdeck cruiser that was re-engined with a pair of counter rotating 185hp Interceptors. I am currently in charge of getting these things back into good order. They are in fine shape aesthetically but have been beaten on hard and are currently getting full rebuilds. It seems most of the internal damage came from overheating. Many things are suspect but first and foremost are the Sherwood water pumps. All internal parts have deep grooves and the impellers were in very bad shape.

Here are a few pictures, please note that the cooling system has been modified to a full, closed loop setup. The water pumps in question actually circulate engine coolant through a heat exchanger and there is a retrofitted pump for sea water.







This is my first post here and although we are obviously not talking about a Correct Craft, this community seems to have the best wealth of knowledge on these Dearborn Interceptor motors. Thank you in advance for taking the time to look through this and add what you can.

Bill

Thank you, I will definitely give him a try. The sherwood pumps pictured circulate the coolant. There is an additional bare brass sherwood pump, an E35 I think, above the crankshaft that pumps raw water.

Riley wrote: Where's the pump that circulates the coolant?

Bruce,
Aren't the pictures coming up that Bill posted?

Finding impellers and seals seems to be the easy part, the cams and separator plates seem to be the hard part. Also, the pully flange has fallen off one of the pump shafts which makes me nervous that it will happen again if I just press it back on.

Brazing the cams would certainly help and I have been looking into just making new plates...

Thanks again to all for the fast response!

Neat old Chris.   Appears to be a 36' Sedan that someone installed a more modern flying bridge on.
Are you removing the bridge for the restoration ?

Bill,
Have you called Depco? Some of our members have had good luck with them.

I have tried Depco, no luck... :(

I have been thinking about trying to retrofit a crank balancer mounted pump like on some 350 mercruisers to replace the current pump. It looks like both sherwood and jabsco have a couple offerings. The availability of replacement parts is a big consideration here.

I would love to just use the motors original centrifugal pump but the front cover doesn't allow for that.

The fitting on the manifold is indeed for a vacuum gauge.

What a cool project!
I just went through this with my interceptor. I couldn't find any of the parts other then the readily available seals, bearing and impellers as that pump has been discontinued for quite a while. If the pump shaft that has the loose flange is otherwise OK, one acceptable fix would be to "pin" the two together by drilling and tapping parallel with the shaft centering the drill bit exactly on the od of the shaft. I don't know if that makes sense, but it wouldn't be hard with a decent drill press and vise.
If you decide to go with a modern crank driven pump I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with. I was considering it but ultimately the oddly shaped crank pulley and plumbing back into the engine inlets pushed me back to the original.
Good luck!

Bill, my cam was 3/16 thick on the unworn sections and I just polished the worn sections with varying grits of Emory cloth wrapped around a appropriately sized dowel until it looked good. Mine had eaten some wire and had some pretty bad scoring but it cleaned up really well. I don't know of any wear limits, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable on the site could lend some insight. Do you have a pic of the cam in question?
The pin isn't through the shoulder of the flange, it's parallel with the shaft. Half of the threads are in the shaft and half of the threads are in the flange. It probably isn't a commonly thought of solution but would be less hassle than making a new flange. I could send a drawing if that would help..

8122pbrainard wrote: Eether wrote: The pin isn't through the shoulder of the flange, it's parallel with the shaft. Half of the threads are in the shaft and half of the threads are in the flange. It probably isn't a commonly thought of solution but would be less hassle than making a new flange. .. Bill, Think of a key and keyway but round and not square. It's an old tool and die makers trick! Instead of being threaded, I'd rather see a taper pin eliminating the clearance of a threaded fastener. Then, for added security, I'd use a retaining compound such as Locktite 609. You'd still probably have to go to the machine shop unless you have a tapered reamer!

Ha yeah, that was what I meant.. Late night brain fart..

Riley wrote: Bill, the photo that you posted is of Billy Sutton's boat, boatdr. He's into Y blocks. Try contacting him and he will probably tell you what he thinks of putting that type of set up on your engines.

Bill,
I mentioned earlier that I don't feel a rubber impeller pump is the way to go for close circuit circulation since impeller maintenance is high. I'd go back to Depco and talk to them about a plain centrifugal pump. There are centrifugal pumps that can be shaft mounted rather than belt driven but a belt drive is an option as well.   

81nautique wrote: Riley wrote: boatdr.    Try contacting him and he will probably tell you what he thinks

318 386 2825

All,

I just got off the phone with Jim Harris. He is able and willing to rebuild both pumps with new parts, he recons he has the last new cams that exist in the world.(I don't doubt him) I can't tell you what a relief that is to hear. Hopefully this serves as a resolution to my issue and again, thank you all for your thoughtful advice in helping my family and I out in our project. If there is interest, I will keep you up to date on the project.

As a side note, Jim is the man! He was able to give me all sorts of additional advise and was very friendly!

Cheers,
Bill

Bill, is reasonable.