water pump adventure.....A/C working!

["Rick Lackner" <hugacub@mail.whidbey.net>]

Someone on the list was asking about water pump replacement, so 
I figure I'll share the fun I had.

On Sunday Bradley Peete (a new listmember with loads of Rocco 
experience) and I made a short lived attempt to change the pump.  @ 
of the screws on the water pump pulley(s) stripped.  Being at his 
sister's place on an island, we aborted quickly.

Last nite (Tue) we set about doing the job at Brad's house where we 
were better equipped.  No luck freeing the stripped bolts with a 
visegrip, we disassembled the beast with pulley in place.  I drilled 
out the center of the bolts and they came right out with the 
visegrips.  We took the entire water pump housing off the block, 
which is the preferred way as you don't need to mess with the 
timing belt this way.  Turns out it was a great decision because.........

4 of the water pump bolts snapped off!  9 at nite and we're 
scrambling to find a hardware store open.  We went to Home Depot and 
found lots of bins for metric bolts.....all empty.  We dug around and 
came up with an assortment of bolts and machine screws that would 
work.

So now we're trying to heat the aluminum housing to remove the bolt 
stubs.  No luck.  Brad just got a new dremel, so we took a tiny bit 
and drilled down the center, leaving the exposed head intact.  Viola!
The first 3 came right out with the visegrips.  The last one had 
hardly anything to grip on and did not come out this way.  Brad cut a 
slot in the top with the dremel, but still no way it would come out.  
Heat, enlarging hole, still no good.  Finally, I said to drill the 
whole thing out as it was in a spot on the housing that we could put 
a nut on the back and use the longest bolt we had bought earlier.  
The last bit of the threads wouldn't come out until the hole was just 
about the original size.

So it's going back together and I go to get the o-ring for the pump 
housing.  The computer at the parts store said it used the same one 
as the thermostat......wrong!  It's a wee bit smaller and luckily I 
had gotten the old one out intact.  It was brittle and a little 
nicked, but with some blue RTV gasket maker silicone it sealed ok.  
There were a few more minor problems, but it went together ok for the 
most part.  

Filled it with coolant and fired her right up with no problems at 
all.  Cleaned up Brad's garage so he could pull in his 16V and 
cruised home 30 miles and stopped in at the 24 hour deli near here 
for a sandwich for supper.  Ate and got to bed a few minutes before 4 
am!  Yes, I went to work today a bit late :)

Some observations:

It appeared to be the original water pump and thermostat.  Stupid 
thing only lasted 145,000 miles!  The thermostat had a little device 
(check valve?) to prevent air bubbles when refilling I presume.  Wer 
did not drill a tiny hole in the new one, but had no trouble filling 
with coolant.  And I filled it thru the tank, not the upper hose.  
Maybe we got lucky (about time something went right!).

I had posted recently about the A/C clutch not working right.  We 
found a ground wire that wasn't attached when we took things apart.  
Today I attached the ground to the alternator and it seems to be 
working just fine now.  Another thing that may have helped was that I 
cleaned the engine compartment at the car wash before we worked on 
it.  It could use a 1/2 lb or so of freon yet, as there's bubbles 
visible in the sight glass, but it cools great!  

Hope all this helps someone here.  Any questions, feel free to ask.

And of course, thanks to Brad for the help and place to do it!

Rick    
hugacub@whidbey.net
Richard.Lackner@entex.com
85 Scirocco 8V  Wolfsburg
Everett, WA
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