Modify or eliminate water pump drive gear

[Ardent_Z28]

I am planning a water pump swap to go electric. I am wondering if it will be necessary to have the drive shaft milled off the water pump drive gear or can it be eliminated altogether with no subsequent issues. I read that milling the shaft off and keeping the gear installed will allow the engine to gain RPMs slightly faster. The plan is to swap the oil pump and water pump while on my December vacation, and have all my parts ready and waiting. Any insight would be appreciated.

[Sahara54]

If your going that far just pull the front cover and swap to a Cloyes 3157 single roller timing chain (or keep stock if lowish miles). Just ditch the water pump drive all together and either weld the hole in the timing cover or jb weld a quarter in there. Plus a fresh timing cover gasket and crank seal is always a good idea. Also make sure you go with a standard volume oil pump with a GM white spring.

[Catmaigne]

Pound the whole drive gear/shaft/bearing out. Loosen the two torx bolts and tap it out towards the front if I remember correctly.

[Ardent_Z28]

If your going that far just pull the front cover and swap to a Cloyes 3157 single roller timing chain (or keep stock if lowish miles). Just ditch the water pump drive all together and either weld the hole in the timing cover or jb weld a quarter in there. Plus a fresh timing cover gasket and crank seal is always a good idea. Also make sure you go with a standard volume oil pump with a GM white spring.

I pulled the front cover and pried the water pump drive gear out with a long pry bar. I was surprised at how easy that was to pry out. The engine already has a Cloyes timing chain, so I used the JB weld and a quarter ya mentioned. One glitch I did run into was when I pulled the cam gear...the cam dowel was mushroomed ever so slightly. It made the removal and install of the cam gear a bbbeeeoootch until I took my metal file and smoothed it out. Then the gear slipped right on. Now there's a fresh pair of seals and gaskets as well. My post on my MSD opti spinning on removal tells the other hurdle I cleared with this mod. The oil pump currently installed is a Melling 55 hi volume, so that's why I bought one from a member of this site that has a Canton pick up tube welded onto it. That swap is next on my agenda. Thanks for all the responses.