Hi All,

I just finished with some maintenance with the cooling
system. In the process, I replaced the water pump
because a drop or so has been dripping from the peep
hole for a year now. In the process, I found out a
couple of things:

1) The pump�s propeller somehow (seal went bad?) moved
towards the crankcase and has done some damage to the
crankcase body (see picture). It kind of shaved some
of the crankcase�s metal. I guess it was rubbing on
the crankcase, I don�t know for how long. Water pump
was made in Germany.

http://www.esu.edu/~gstylia/vw/WaterPumpDamage1.jpg

2) The water pump itself was really held by only 2 out
of the 3 nuts. The third one seemed to not have been
tightened all the way when the pump was replaced.
Still, there was no leak at that particular point, or
probably some that I did not notice.

The pump was replaced 8 years ago. We were going on
vacation driving to Destin, Florida and about 1 mile
from our hotel, the previous water pump went into
pieces. What a time! Anyway, we found a place to have
it fixed. The person who did the job was very nice and
very helpful. It just turned out that in the midst of
things, he did not tightened the third nut all the
way. So, all these years, we may have been driving on
2 nuts. Is that fun, or what? I am not sure for how
long the rubbing took place.

QUESTION: Should I be concerned about the damage on
the crankcase body? Has anybody else had such a
problem?

During that process, I also noticed that one of  my
water/coolant long pipes that go under the van needed
some work. I will share soon.

Thanks,

geo
Vanagon 86, 2.1

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