slayed

Im doing my first repair on a 76 delta 88 royale. The original water pump I took off has 1 outlet.

I first ordered a pump from Advance Auto Parts and it came with 2 outlets so I returned it because they had one listed with just one outlet. I had to wait 3 days for it to arrive from the manufacturer. When it arrived it also had 2 outlets, but came with a cap and a clamp.

Should I just install this pump? Is the cap and clamp sufficient or will it mess up the flow of coolant? Thanks ahead of time for any help!

joe_padavano

When you say "two outlets", I assume you are referring to the bypass outlets on the top of the pump. One is obviously used for the T-stat neck bypass. The other is usually for the heater hose, but I'm guessing that on your car the heater hose goes to the radiator instead. It is common and perfectly acceptable to cap the unused outlet. Just be warned that most of the caps provided with water pumps are cheap molded rubber with no internal fiber reinforcement. I've seen them dry out and crack after a relatively short period of time (like a year or so) and start leaking. If you use the cap, inspect it regularly for cracking and potential leaks.

slayed

Thank you. I was unsure if this was an acceptable fix or just the manufacture being lazy. It does have the cheap rubber cap. What other method/material would you suggest to cap it off with?

Rocket331

I've used a short section of hose with a big bolt clamped in it. It's not pretty, but it's effective.

joe_padavano

It pains me to admit I've done this too. I recently got a set of the caps from NAPA. Still no reinforcing cords, but the do seem to be better made than the Chinesium ones that come with the pumps.

slayed

My father is being kind of skeptical on using the cap and clamp with 2 outlets. I found one that can be here in 4 days with just one outlet, so it looks like Ill be waiting until later this week to do any more work. Im going to go over all the rust with some steel wool while I have it all apart to hold me over until I get the proper part. Thanks guys!

Rocket331

Better yet!