Club 80-90 Forums

3 years ago when we bought our van we heard a sound after a while in the engine bay. A grinding sound started and after a couple of miles our water pump failed and we overheated. We had a bran new one fitted quality parts only and the noise has started again. The thing is we have a leak from the crankshaft pully and I was hoping the noise may be coming from there instead. However a went and had a look and the water pump seems a little loose only marginally so I'm not sure if a quick tighten may fix the problem. I'm changing the crankcase pully seal as well but what do you guys think is it the water pump and if so why has it only lasted 3 years

Drive belt being too tight could cause it to fail earlier than expected I guess.

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yes over tight belt kills them
three years doesnt really mean much ,is that 36,000 miles , or 9,000 miles ?

Out of interest how hard is it to change. I found the pump on brickwerks for about £38, last time I had our mecanhic fix it and do the coolant pipes from front to back at the same time. Really trying to fix as much as I can myself this year to save money at £50 an hour labour from a machanic we could save ourselves a fortune and pay for other parts to fix as well

If it was only changed 3 years ago it should be pretty straightforward, early water pumps are easy as long as everything comes undone . Hardest bit will be getting the pullies off I would think .

As above this should be easy enough if replaced relatively recently, just be careful with the thermostat housing as these are obsolete now.

Thanks for the advice guys I'm really hoping its not the water pump and it's just the crankcase pully that's making the noise. I am a little worried of damaging the thermostat housing as our mecanhinc mentiond there obsolete now. It was replaced about 3 years ago so all fittings should be easy to remove. Any advice or tricks to replace would be greatly appreciated. I'm wondering how hard it is to get off the pulleys the water pump and crankcase, is there a trick to get them off.

Ant-t wrote:As above this should be easy enough if replaced relatively recently, just be careful with the thermostat housing as these are obsolete now.

Am I being dumb?, the Thermostat housing on a 1.9 is nowhere near the pump so why are you saying be careful?
Also pretty sure you can still buy thermostat housings from places??

As everyone else says if the belt is too tight it will knacker it. How many miles you done since it was changed ( the pump that is )?

Stesaw wrote:

Ant-t wrote:As above this should be easy enough if replaced relatively recently, just be careful with the thermostat housing as these are obsolete now.

Am I being dumb?, the Thermostat housing on a 1.9 is nowhere near the pump so why are you saying be careful?
Also pretty sure you can still buy thermostat housings from places??

As everyone else says if the belt is too tight it will knacker it. How many miles you done since it was changed ( the pump that is )?

Early van.
David.

jrt wrote:Early van.

I missed that key bit of info!

sarahandthebear wrote:Thanks for the advice guys I'm really hoping its not the water pump and it's just the crankcase pully that's making the noise. I am a little worried of damaging the thermostat housing as our mecanhinc mentiond there obsolete now. It was replaced about 3 years ago so all fittings should be easy to remove. Any advice or tricks to replace would be greatly appreciated. I'm wondering how hard it is to get off the pulleys the water pump and crankcase, is there a trick to get them off.

When I did the one on one of ours I started by soaking the bolts and threads where possible with plus gas about a week before hand , and I made sure the engine was up to running temp before starting the actual job ( obviously I let it cool after it had been up to temp so a safe level so I didn’t burn my self )the heat helps and made sure all the tools fitted the bolts tightly and correctly .
You must be gentle but firm , the two bolts into the thermostat housing from the water pump are the biggest worry
Make sure you have a new set of baskets ready and clean everything really well if and when you are ready to reassemble

It’s not such a terrible job if you don’t break anything .

I’m sure there is a video on youtube all about what happens if you do snap the bolts or kill the thread , search "jackbox water pump “

Taking the pulley off the water pump is relatively easy , use the belt to hold the pulley still while you "crack" the bolts open by gripping it tight and stopping it rotating against the engine whilst the van is in gear with handbrake on

The big pulley is a bit more challenging , van in low gear , handbrake on, glamorous assistant with foot on brake if you can’t get it to "crack" any other way !
Both much easier with a ugga-dugga gun if the engine is out ......

For what its worth…. are you sure the noise is coming from the water pump?

The reason for asking is that I was in the process of faffing about with the thermostat and noticed that the pipe from the water pump that goes behind the crank pulley was very close to the outer rim of the pulley. So close in fact that I couldn’t get a piece of paper between the two! I also noticed that the pipe wasn’t aligned very well with the one it connects to (via a rubber hose) from the right-hand side of the engine.

When I took the pipe off there were two very deep arced grooves in the pipe caused by the crank pulley rim. In my case I had no noise to warn me of this.

So my thought is, is it possible the crank has developed end float that allows it to make contact with this pipe? It might also explain the leak from the crank I think has been mentioned?

Bit of a long shot I know, but in any case worth keeping in mind when replacing the pump and pipe.

if there are no physical signs , then a "listening stick" is called for ...... place a long screwdriver or simular on the water pump with the engine running and your ear on the other end , any wrong noise will be transmitted up the listening stick and you can narrow the source down

if there are no physical signs , then a "listening stick" is called for ...... place a long screwdriver or simular on the water pump with the engine running and your ear on the other end , any wrong noise will be transmitted up the listening stick and you can narrow the source down

Thanks everyone for your advice and unfortunately I think it's definitely the water pump. This morning I took the belt off and gave the pully a wiggle and it wobbles arround. I remember from last time this was how the other one went. I'm sure you should not be able to wiggle the pully. Having a look at it today it looks like the dizzy has to come off for access and whilst I'm there I'm going to drain and redo the coolant, changing a few other hoses that are leaking coolant.