Wear Parts for Pump and Motor Repair Shops

Packed pumps and vertical turbines: what a rebuild replaces

The parts a rebuild opens up and replaces. Shaft sleeves and wear rings are quoted to the print or from a new sample part, and a shaft sleeve is “a hollow metal tube that protects the shaft from packing wear,” in Crane Engineering’s packing glossary (source 3). What goes on a sleeve or ring print, from the bore fit to the running clearance, is covered part by part on pump shaft sleeves and wear rings, and machined pump parts covers the rest of the pump. This page is about getting the same parts again, pump after pump.

A packed pump carries more small parts than the sleeve. A packed stuffing box “consists of a stuffing box cavity with a restrictive ‘throat’ bushing at the pumpage end, several rings of packing, a hollow spacer or lantern ring, several more rings of packing and a follower or gland” (source 1). The throat bushing, the lantern ring and the packing gland in that sentence are all quoted, along with the sleeve the packing runs on.

Lantern rings are “usually in the center of every packing set in a centrifugal pump,” and they “protect the stuffing box and the installed packing by providing an access point for flush water,” write Chuck Tanner and Cody Kaufmann in Pumps & Systems, who name PTFE or PEEK as the ideal materials (source 2). Crane Engineering adds bronze to that list and notes that lantern rings are usually split (source 3), so a split ring goes on the print with the width and position of the cut, like a split bushing. The packing gland “helps to hold the packing inside the stuffing box” (source 3), and its nose is what pushes each ring into the box (source 7); its print carries the bore over the sleeve, the nose diameter and length, and the stud holes or slots.

Vertical turbine pumps wear a different set. Eugene Vogel of EASA writes that “line shaft and pump bowl bearings are the most common wear parts for VTPs,” that “a key element of a VTP repair is to machine replacement bearings to the proper shaft clearances,” and that common repairs include “replacing worn shafting” (source 4). Line-shaft bushings are quoted to the bore and OD on your print, or to the clearance you name against a shaft you have measured, and custom bushings covers press fits and bore sizing. Line shafts and pump shafts for a rebuild are turned to the print as custom shafts, with journals, keyways and threads as drawn.

Motor repair parts: housing sleeves, repair sleeves, stub shafts and caps

On the motor side, the worn fits are usually the bearing housings and the shaft journals. Robert Giesen of B & B Electric Motor Co. opens his EASA article on the job with “Many motor service centers bore and sleeve end brackets (end bells) in machine lathes” (source 6). You bore the bracket; the sleeve that goes into it is quoted to your print: the OD with the interference you want against the bore you cut, the length, and a bore that is either finished size or left for you to finish after the sleeve is pressed in. Say which on the print or in the part description. Bearing housing sleeves covers what that sleeve’s print needs.

A shaft repair sleeve for a journal you have turned down is quoted the same way: give the prepared journal size, the fit, and an OD that is either finished to what the bearing or seal needs or left for you to finish after the sleeve is fitted. A stub shaft is a turned part like any other on shafts and pins, with its journal diameters and fits, keyseat, thread, shoulder positions and material on the print. Bearing caps are quoted to the bore, pilot, bolt pattern and any grease passage on the drawing. A coupling hub for the same motor can go on the same order, and shaft couplings covers hub bores and keyways.

What each part needs on the print or sample

Every row below can start from a new sample part instead of a print; the next section covers how. The last column names where the part is covered in more depth, with a link where the part has its own page.

No drawing? Send a new sample part

When there is no print, an unused spare can serve as the sample. Send a new part, not the worn one. Wear changes the sizes that matter. The sample is measured and drawn through reverse engineering. The sample ships back with the parts. The design is quoted as its own line on the first order only; every reorder after that comes off the same drawing. Reorders at the same revision: send the last quote or PO number and it’s requoted. A fully dimensioned 2D PDF is quoted without a CAD line.

With the part or the print, send what you know: the material if it is known, how many you use in a year, and the pump or motor make and model if it helps place the part. Files: any file type; STEP + PDF ideal. Photos of the part in the assembly help when the fit is not obvious from the part alone.

Restocking the parts you use every year

A rebuild shop orders the same sleeve or bushing again and again, so the quote can follow the way you buy. Ask for more than one quantity, such as 1, 25 and 100, and the quote shows each. A year’s usage can also be quoted as a blanket order and delivered in releases. Price, release schedule and lead time per release are set in the quote. Sleeves, bushings and shafts for different pumps and motors can go on one purchase order, each line at its own quantity, and small-batch CNC machining covers how quantity moves the price.

Quotes come back in 24-48 hours. Rush: 1-2 weeks. Standard: 4-6 weeks (typical). Extended: 6-8 weeks, for jobs that aren't time-sensitive. No minimum: one piece to production runs of 10,000, so one sleeve for the pump on your bench is a normal order, as CNC parts with no minimum order explains.

Bronze, stainless or steel?

Bronze bushings and sleeves are quoted in C93200, also called SAE 660 bearing bronze, in C95400 aluminum bronze, and in SAE 841 oil-impregnated bronze; custom bushings covers each and how an SAE 841 bore is sized. Stainless parts are quoted in 304, 316 and 17-4 PH, the grades the pumps page names for sleeves and rings. Shafts, stub shafts and bearing caps in carbon or alloy steel are quoted to the grade on the print, and the steel page covers the common ones. PEEK is quoted for lantern rings and bushings where the print calls for a plastic.

For the sleeve bearings in a vertical turbine pump moving condensate, which is usually hot water, Lev Nelik weighs carbon, bronze and PEEK, and names PEEK a good candidate in abrasive service (source 5). The material is the pump’s call, and the bushing is quoted as the print names it. Other alloys and plastics quoted on request. Name the grade on the print.

What comes with the parts

If a part doesn’t match the print, it’s remade or credited. Typical machined tolerance is ±0.005 in, ±0.001 in on critical turned diameters, and down to ±0.0002 in on wire-EDM and other finished features; ground features are quoted to ±0.0001 in. A finish called out on the print is quoted with the part.

Vendor setup in a day: W-9, NDA, net terms available, and one contact from quote to delivery. The rebuild and the fitting stay with you; MI CNC Parts supplies the part, to your print or to a drawing measured from the sample.

Sources

Quoted passages on this page come from the following, all accessed 28 September 2026. Where anything here differs from your print, the print governs.

1. Pumps Design, “Packed Stuffing Box for Centrifugal Pumps - API 610”: pumpsdesign.com/packed-stuffing-box/ (what a packed stuffing box consists of: throat bushing, packing rings, lantern ring, gland).

2. Chuck Tanner and Cody Kaufmann, “The Critical Role of the Humble Lantern Ring,” Pumps & Systems, 26 October 2020: pumpsandsystems.com/article/critical-role-humble-lantern-ring/ (where a lantern ring sits and what it does; PTFE or PEEK as the ideal materials).

3. Sara Peters, Crane Engineering, “Terms You Need To Know For Packing Installation In Centrifugal Pumps,” 19 October 2017, blog.craneengineering.net/terms-you-need-to-know-for-packing-installation-in-centrifugal-pumps (shaft sleeve, packing gland and lantern ring; lantern rings in PTFE or bronze, usually split).

4. Eugene Vogel, EASA, “Best Practices for Vertical Turbine Pump Repair,” Pumps & Systems, 22 June 2018: pumpsandsystems.com/best-practices-vertical-turbine-pump-repair (line shaft and bowl bearings as the most common VTP wear parts; replacement bearings to shaft clearance; worn shafting).

5. Lev Nelik, “Shaft & Bearing Material Selection,” Pumps & Systems, 26 April 2013: pumpsandsystems.com/shaft-bearing-material-selection (carbon, bronze and PEEK sleeve bearings in a vertical turbine condensate pump).

6. Robert Giesen, B & B Electric Motor Co., “Boring and sleeving bearing housings in a vertical milling machine,” EASA, November 2002: easa.com/resources/resource-library/boring-and-sleeving-bearing-housings-in-a-vertical-milling-machine-1 (motor service centers bore and sleeve end brackets).

7. Kathy Johnson, “4 Steps to Correctly Inserting Packing Rings,” Pumps & Systems, 16 February 2021: pumpsandsystems.com/4-steps-correctly-inserting-packing-rings (the gland nose pushes each packing ring into the stuffing box).