1968 Water Pump Plates
 

I noticed when I disassembled the water pump from the timing cover the outer plate was intentionally glued to the pump with a very strong RTV. Is that necessary? Or do both plates just stack in the timing cover cavity loosely?

Both plates just sit in there. It may be that they were glued in place to make reassembly easier.

Thanks. Just wanted to be sure.

Be sure and set the gap between the water pump impeller and divider plate. The proper gap has solved a lot of over heating problems. There are a number of threads on this topic in this forum.

Dang it! After I bolted the water pump on the timing cover and now the impeller is scraping one of the plates. About 5% of the rotation. Of course I didn’t find this until later after the RTV set up. Bolted it down and went to get the grandkids and dinner. I guess a re-do is in order. Not sure what went wrong after setting the clearance and checking and rechecking 743 times…….

Yeah, I ran that 8 bolt water pump for many years. It's a PITA to get the plates aligned, clearanced and installed. Make sure they aren't warped and they nest in the cover correctly. I've found that if you clearance the plate so it seems like it's a tight fit on the impeller, it will drag. Spin it several times so you get a witness mark on where it hits so you can clearance that spot.

All this talk and warning about improper clearance (overheating) had me scared not to bend up my plate for a tight fit. Wished I’d left it alone.

You will be glad you did. Better to do it now....dry....than have ANY heating issue and wonder...HMM could tightening the clearance there solve this? Bummer for sure but its only about 1 hr...