[jscheublein]

Does anyone know the correct casting number fo the water pump on a 1969 TA RA III?

Thanks

Jim

[johnta1]

9797581 is what I show for it.

[chrisp]

Is that the only # ?

[Uncle Judge]

Here is a service bulletin from January of 1970. Sorry if the scan is too small to see. The only 1969 dated water pumps that I own have a casting number of 9796351. The 9797581 is the later replacement for the Firebird.

[johnta1]

Actually, that says the 70 style pump .

The one I said is the right one, but it turns out it's not the casting number, but the part number.

This post by John V explains it well.

Water Pumps

[Transamric]

Another vote for the #351 casting for all '69 V-8 Firebirds.

[TAaddict]

I had a very low mile original 69 TA that had the original water pump on it and it was a 9796351. As I understand it Pontiac used a different pump on later cars

[alex s]

All 69 birds have a 351 pump as Jeff stated ,The 581 is a service replacement #

[John V.]

Just to have a little fun, see if you can follow this.

Absolutely NO '69 Firebird engine was factory assembled with a Water Pump Assembly using p/n 9796351.

The reason why is because p/n 9796351 was NOT the p/n for a Water Pump Assembly.

Rather it was the p/n for the Water Pump Body casting.

This Body Casting was used in the '69 Water Pump Assembly. The '69 Water Pump Assembly was issued p/n 9797581.

The p/n 9797581 did not supersede p/n 9796351 since they are two very different parts.

However, the p/n 9797581 Water Pump Assembly was assembled with the p/n 9796351 Water Pump Body casting.

Pontiac only serviced the V8 Water Pumps as assemblies so you will not find p/n 9796351 in the MPC as a serviceable part.

Until the Bulletin issued in Jan '70 changed the Service usage, all '69s were serviced by the p/n 9797581 Water Pump Assembly, same as the pump used in production.

For reasons lost to history, PMD decided in Jan. '70 that all '69 Models except Firebird were to be serviced with the p/n 478126 '70 Water Pump Assembly. This Pump used the p/n 9799124 Water Pump Body casting and had a larger front bearing. It also had a longer "snout" so required a deeper dish pulley to maintain the same Belt alignment as provided by the '69 Pump and Pulley choices.

Some years later, the p/n 9797581 Pump was discontinued altogether and even the '69 Firebird would have been serviced with the '70 Pump (with related change out of the Pulley).

I believe, but have never been able to prove, that '69 Firebird V8 engines assembled in the fall of '69 after '70 production had begun might have been assembled at the Engine Plant with the '70 Water Pump.

Since the p/n on the Pump Body casting was the most obvious way to distinguish between the '69 & '70 Pump Assemblies, at some point in time there were instructions in the MPC to check the p/n on the Pump Body before ordering the Service Replacement Pump for '69 applications. I think, but can't really recall, that these instructions were specific to the Firebird.

Although the '70 Pump is more robust, I cannot imagine any performance reason for specifying the '70 Pump for all '69s except the Firebird. If the '69 Pump was proving to be a warranty problem, surely PMD would have included the Firebird in the change.

The only logical explanation that I can think of might be that PMD had no intention of continuing production of the p/n 9797581 Pump so reserved the dwindling supply for the Firebird Model alone.

If anybody has a better explanation, I'd like to hear it.

[chrisp]

What would part # 488296 HO92 11 bolt be from ? As i had removed it from a WQ r/a 3 that i sold . Thank you

[Transamric]

The #296 would be a common later Service Replacement pump.

[chrisp]

Have a 9796351 if needed .