3.0 woes, 1989 caravan water pump

Did you replace the pump with an aftermarket unit, which typically ends up being only half the water pump, or the entire assembly, which when I did the job on a 3.0 about 6 years ago , was available from dealers for a few more bucks ?

I got the said "aftermartket" pump at first, but discovered it was only half, as you stated. It was only 30bucks at Auto Zone. No one carried the other half, so I ended up at the dealer who milked me for the full 110.00 price tag.

--4 times the price than the partial aftermarket one.

Anyway, I put on the pump. it is very hard to see if the tube fitting is on correctly without removing the intake, so I am not sure if the leak is from there. I cannot do a successful water test with the intake off, because water goes through it through the thermostat as well as through a port in the back of the intake. 3.0 is a poor design, but on my budget right now, an upgrade is out of the question.

Please tell me of your experiences with your water pump?

Please use my email address to respond. snipped-for-privacy@austin.rr.com

I would appreciate anything you may have to offer as advice for this engine.

thanks,

Dave

That hole your looking at is most likely as a bleed hole in case the water pump shaft seal goes gunnysack.

It is not unheard of for a brand new water pump to leak, but it is more common for the rebuilt pumps to leak out of the box. Incidentally the "half" that AutoZone carries is perfectly fine, it is the half that contains the shaft and is what leaks, the other "half" is nothing more than a casting.

It is possibly justified for a professional mechanic to go with a complete new pump in this case because you have to pay his time to reassemble the rebuilt part on to the casting otherwise, making the costs pretty equal. But I've always gone for the rebuilt "half" and just spent the half hour or so cleaning the gasket off the casting "half" and reassembling the pump, because of course my time is free to me.

The worst rebuilt water pump I ever dealt with was that for my wife's old VW rabbit. (thankfully long gone now) when her water pump died. I went through 2 rebuilt pumps that leaked out of the box, before getting one that merely weeped a bit out of the box (and healed itself up later) My take was that the VW design was hideous. Fortunately the pump was extremely accessible.

Ted

I gave up on rebuilt stuff awhile back. Too many of the rebuilt units have been worse than the original. This has happened to me on steering racks, power steering pumps, alternators, and wiper motors.

Thats because most rebuilds are just cleaned and painted and put back out on the market for resale. Plus allot of time the OEM will change and update a part to a better one because there were problems with the old one...... the aftermarket companies just resale it again. OEM is the only way to go on most parts

That isn't true around here, you must have some really crummy rebuilders around where you live.

The rebuilt parts I've got from stores here all have new seals, bearings, etc. in use. And they aren't usually painted - the favorite thing seems to be to glass bead or plastic bead the parts. The problem is that the cheaper rebuilds use cheap parts and they obviously use minimum wage labor that doesen't give a crap if a seal is upside down and backwards, or in crooked, or whatever.

Ted

The alternator was from AutoZone.

The steering rack, power steering pump, and wiper motor were branded Cardone from a local owned Mom and Pop parts store.

The first rebuilt rack failed after a year of use. I had it replaced under the lifetime warranty for free parts, paying only labor, but the end result was a very loose feel to the steering with the second replacement unit. To get the rack out of a K-Car you have to drop the K member and have the car realigned.

I fought a problem with a hanging rear piston in a rear caliper on my 88 New Yorker for two years. It is a Bosch ABS system. I tried a local dealer for the part but they claimed they were no longer available new. I then went with a NAPA sourced rebuilt unit that started having the same failure after a year of use. I then had a long conversation with an old friend of my fathers who told me it was typical for the piston seal on the calipers to harden and seize up the unit. I then found a "complete" rebuilt caliper with all new hardware and pads from a national parts seller on the Internet. This seems to have solved the problem. There were very few places selling "complete" calipers for this car, probably due to age of car and uniqueness.