water pump gone bad

Water pump went bad on me, as soon as it happen i cut off the jeep as it threw the belt off. The and made a really bad grinding noise. Well after getting it towed home. and went to spin the pulley for the water pump and it's like the bearings went and the shaft bent/ twisted a little. Enough so the pulley part that the belt runs on to rub a small grove into the water pump houseing and the for the fins to rub on the other side. Anyone ever had anything clse to this happen. It's the first time for me in all the cars i've ever worked on to see the shaft to like bend. Any thing i should look for before i replace it with the new water pump?

It's probably not a "bent" shaft - you've probably lost a bearing to the point where the shaft endplay got stupid. I've seen it happen - and it's why you threw the belt.

Just replace the pump and belt, and visually check everything else before you get started again, and you should be fine. It's happened to me (on my 87,) and that was all I did. When I did a postmortem on the water pump, the shaft was straight, and the bearings were GONE.

5-90

thanks 5-90 , thats what i was thinking had happen just wanted to be sure

In a similar situtation I've had several things happen. Bearing on the waterpump seized, and the shaft snapped off (lunched my rad). The other time just the pulley got bent when the belt jammed it.