Z134 Water Pump Question

I recently purchased a MF 150 with the Z134 engine. While taking it for a ride through the field I noticed coolant pouring out of the bottom of the water pump. The pulley looked to be in good shape so I ordered a bare pump with the plan on swapping the pulley over. Anyway before putting much pressure at all on the pulley to remove it from the old pump, it cracked.

I ordered a new pulley and finally got it yesterday. Went to press it on to my new pump, and then had a few minor issues.

First after the pulley went down about halfway, it started to push the shaft through the impeller. I flipped the pump over, made sure to only be pushing on the shaft and got it pressed back down. Problem 1 was that now the impeller is rubbing on the bottom of the pump.

I then flipped it over and supported it without contact to the impeller and pressed the pulley further on. This gave some clearance for the impeller to spin again, but it still seems to be rubbing slightly and the pump seems tight to turn.

I know this pump was fairly tight when I pulled it out of the box so i'm not too concerned with that aspect, but i'm still not sure I have the impeller spaced far enough away from the bottom of the pump. It is roughly 1/32 to 1/16" away. Is that far enough? Is there a spec out there for this?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

I think your clearance is good, but if it's hard to turn...

Don't want to be discouraging, but good chance the seal is damaged now. Nothing to loose by trying though, just keep a close watch on it.

I put it together and ran the tractor for a while. Never a drop came out. I think it will be alright. Thanks for the info though.

There was a learning experience here!

Next time you will know you must ALWAYS support the other end of the SHAFT, when pressing on a pulley, a pulley hub, or the impeller.

Isn't that the truth. In all honesty, it only pushed the shaft down at the most 1/8". As soon as it started to move down I changed my setup. Seems to be working fine without any leaks now.