[Vwdiesel] water pump fun (not!)

[MLightner]

What /else/ could be wrong with this car? talk about a crash-course in 
VW-diesel mechanics, I truly hope I'll soon be able to just drive this 
little beast.  It's almost as if it was put together with the most 
clapped out parts available, the intermediate shaft seal-carrier is the 
scariest looking part so far, it looks like someone took a hammer to it 
in three different places.  Anyway, I'd decided to drive it a little bit 
before doing the T-belt (I'd changed the tensioner as there was a noise 
possibbly coming from that area).

Once I got the alternator replaced (it was noisy, too), I could then 
hear the water pump making a rhythmic squawk; I put some water pump lube 
in the resevoir, which quieted it down a bit, but, who knows how long 
that will last? I just needed for it to last till my next day off from 
work, so I could get it back on the road right away. That was not to be, 
though.

 I knew I should replace the timing belt as soon as possible anyway, 
and, not knowing the history of the engine, it would have been hard not 
to replace the WP even if it hadn't been noisy. So, I'll soon have /that 
/area of the engine squared away, today's shaping up to be a good day to 
lay around in the dirt and gravel and do some reassembly.

one of the things I learned was, don't try to take the bolts that hold 
the water pump to the housing without heating them up good first - five 
of the nine bolts broke right of, leaving about an eighth to 3 
sixteenths of an inch sticking out of the housing to work with.  Of 
those, four of them came out after careful application of heat with a  
propane torch and a gentle back-n-forth twisting with my trusty 
needle-nosed.visegrips. The fifth one was the shortest nub, and was 
quickly being worn away by the visegrips, so I figured the last resort 
was to weld a nut to the nub, as I'd heard
of people doing before, but never actually tried - it actually worked!  
I used my stick welder (a Lincoln 225 , the  basic AC-only tombstone) 
and a 309L-16 rod set on 105 amps.  I think an auto-darkening helmet is 
a necessity too,
as it would really have sucked if I'd not been able to strike an arc 
exactly where it was needed.

Just thought it might be helpful to someone if this was in the archives.

Mike in NC