What a day...

[Una]

So I went to do my timing belt, idler pulley, water pump, thermostat and coolant hoses today. Got the hoses from Jack. Bought the timing belt locally, had to order it, but only took a day for them to get it. Ordered the tensioner at the same time. Got the right part number, but the part inside the box was the wrong tensioner. Someone must have swapped it out at some point. So I found that out after I had the car all torn down, so I had to call all over town and drive a couple cities over to get the correct tensioner. Then I went to install the water pump, only to find out AFTER I installed it that I have a 40mm shaft, not a 30mm, so I had to take it back off and clean all the sealant off of it so that I could return it. Then I find that there's two different flange heights on the 40mm version.. I'm just hoping the one I ordered that will be here tomorrow is the correct part. Geeze. I managed to get the water pump off without breaking the rusty bolts holding it on, but I wasn't that lucky with the thermostat, so I had to pull the alternator and remove the whole housing so I could get very very lucky with a set of vice grips. So now I'm stuck on the timing belt till I get the correct water pump tomorrow. I guess I can swap out those coolant hoses, and change the oil while I wait. I really hope I have better luck tomorrow and can just button this thing up in time to drive it to work on Monday.

[82vdub]

That's an unfortunate part of doing the service work to our own vehicles. I've been there many times, and it sure sucks. My most recent being this spring when I changed the timing belt and redid the intermediate shaft and front crank seals. That job that should have taken a day or day and a half ended up taking up the garage for a week.

[Una]

I just put the thermostat housing back together, I used new bolts that weren't all rusty, and I used anti-seize on the threads. I expect that will help prevent a repeat of this problem down the road. I also got all the new hoses installed.
Found something interesting when I changed the oil. It had a "Mahle" brand oil filter on it, I replaced it with a K&N oil filter, the K&N filter appears at least 25% larger than the one that came off the motor. I almost got an entire quart of oil into it when I pre-filled it. It's an "HP-3001", I was actually concerned it was too big to fit in the space available, but it fit perfectly. I put 15-40 Royal Purple synthetic oil in the engine.
I'm still waiting on the correct water pump to arrive, should be here early this afternoon (3 hours). Then I can finally install the new timing belt and wrap this thing up.

[Una]

And they got me the wrong pump again. Getting closer.. They got me the 40mm shaft pump, with 2 7/8" depth. I need the 2 5/8" depth. I had to explain to the kid at the parts store what happens when the pulley is out of a alignment by 1/4".. Maybe I'll have better luck with the pump the other parts store is supposed to have for me tomorrow. I was hoping to wrap this up this weekend, but oh well, I have other cars I can drive to work tomorrow.

[vwtyp133]

Parts assemblies waiting on parts! BTDT

My college roommate was not all that shocked when he walked into our large dorm room one day to find my Ford's trans (with overdrive) all laid out sequentially on newspapers over about 12-15 feet of the floor! I explained that I was waiting on the Ford dealer for some parts, and it was cool with him; guess it helped that he was from a farming family and understood that some things just take time.

A simple suggestion on a pre-installation detail for the correct water pump: make certain any casting "flash" is removed from the flange & pump's inlet / outlet. That can really help flow of coolant in a warm engine, in some cases, to the extent of preventing overheating while pulling hills, heavier loads, etc. Obviously you don't want to alter any clearances between the pump's impeller & wall, just inlet & outlet to that area. In a 'perfect world', that cleanup process shouldn't be necessary, but today there are a lot of crappy castings in the marketplace. Some get bolted on at the factory, but IMO most are available from aftermarket suppliers.

Have a fun weekend.

[the vegenator]

I had a heck of a time doing all my own front end steering/suspension/axle work. Ordering the parts through local big box vendors ended up being a mistake. I got wrong ball joints, wrong tie rod boots, and a few other bogus parts. Nowadays I try and only order parts through VW parts distributors, like Jack here, or a shop in Louisville. Usually saves me a lot of headaches down the line.

Good luck to you... I'm building my engine back up over the next couple days... keep your fingers crossed that I don't suffer your fate!

[Una]

Yeah, I got it all done. Next time I have to do that kind of maintenance to the car, I'll be much better versed in exactly which parts to ask for, for this car. Sad part was that the next day after I got it all back together, the injection pump started leaking profusely, so I got to take it all back apart. It's back together and running again now, though.