Water pump divider plate fit.
 

I have a 67 timing cover with 8 bolt pump. Installing a new Gates 43122 water pump. I adjusted the vane clearance to about .060-,090. The issue I have is when the divider plates are placed in the timing cover they are too far back at the top. There is a dimple in the plate that should hold the plate out further to be flush. Needs to be pushed out about .080. I thought the timing cover may be worn or corroded where this dimple makes contact but there is no sign of that. There is no boss on the area either. This is the clearance for the tripower water neck. I have seen some housings that have a boss on the inside but none on the cover I have. So I am considering building up some marine epoxy to create a boss grind/file to fit or drill a hole in the divider plate at the dimple and use a screw and nut epoxied in to the plate, then file the screw head to get proper fit. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated.

It sounds like your plate is not stamped out right!

Get some clay or play dough and place enough on a impeller blade so that when you in stall itge pump you can check the impeller to plate clearance and compare top to bottom measurements at a few locations.
This will confirm my guess that the plate is not stamped right.

Picture please.

Thanks

Greg

You may need to build it up with JB Weld then file it down to make the plate fit correctly, I think you have a good idea. I fit the plate to barely rub the vanes, without the gasket installed, then my clearance is the gasket thickness.

Stainless divider plate?

I used a hammer and dolly body work style to reduce the clearance.

Thanks for the inputs. The plates I have are steel OEM in good condition. I found another set that has a better dimension to the dimple. So I massaged that set to get proper vane clearance and added just a small amount of Marine Weld Epoxy at the dimple to allow the plates to sit flush in the timing housing. I attached a couple pics of the inside of timing cover where the dimple makes contact, the original plates in the timing cover to show how far from flush at the top, and the water pump. The Gates pump from Rockauto is priced right and beats searching for a good rebuild with cast impeller.