Was in traffic yesterday in my '87 Westy when my alternator/O2 lights
went on, followed quickly by the temp rising. D*mn, lost a belt.
Popped the cover, sure enough there were belts loose everywhere ...
but none broken! Odd. Then I noticed no pulley on the H2O pump! Found
it lying in the engine compartment.

Hmmmmm, thought I, maybe I can just reattach it and be on my merry
way. No such luck, of course - there doesn't seem to be any way to
attach it; must have been heat `welded' onto the shaft, or something.
Tow truck time.

I'm not horribly surprised, however. For the last few days whenever I
started her cold I got a loud screeeeeeching noise from the engine,
sounding like belts. Belts were fine, however, so I had been driving
around with a feeling of impending doom.

So my local VW mechanic says "Probably water pump. $200+". Ouch. This
being my first VW and my first problem, I wasn't prepared for that. 

What does net wisdom say? Ever see a pulley pop of these things, or is
that a common occurrence? Is $200+ for a water pump reasonable? Or am
I just being horribly naive?

-- 
Dan Resler

Dept. of Mathematical Sciences            
Virginia Commonwealth University           
Richmond, VA                                    
23284-2014 USA
email: resler@liberty.mas.vcu.edu