hoospiders

Finally putting my 1991 V8Q back together, but as i wrap up the timing belt replacement, i have encountered a strange situation: the new Hepu water pump that i installed as a part of my "recommissioning" seems to lack the threaded hole (it has a hole in the right spot, its just not threaded) that my old water pump had (it was a Meyle that a previous owner had probably installed). The hole in the old water pump held a bolt that passed through a slot in the stop plate of the timing belt tensioner. once the timing belt is in place, the cam sprockets and vibration damper are all torqued down, and the tensioner damper length is verified at 136-139mm, you are supposed to tighten the stop plate mounting bolt and then remove VAG tool 3204 (Timing Belt Tensioner Locking Pin), which in my case is an allen wrench, from the hole in the tensioner lever. thats all well and good, but as i said in the beginning of this post, my new water pump has a hole in exactly the right spot for the stop plate mounting bolt; its just not threaded.

so i can very easily tap M6 threads in the existing hole and wrap things up. but before i do so, i thought i would see what the forum had to say. as always, thanks in advance.

toml99

Hey, the last kit I got from Blau(last kit I'll buy from them) came with an Italian pump that had the same issue. In my case you could see grooves for threads but it appeared the hole was drilled too big and the tap was barely making contact. The guy at Blau checked and the one's on the shelf were all the same. In the end all they did was send me a bottle of car wax to compensate. I too thought about tapping it/reaming out the adjuster but in the end reinstalled old pump that was in good shape but didn't make me happy. On a different note, my Lago car has a slow leak at pump as the instructions said not to use sealant on gasket. It wasn't green like the OEM ones and felt more like cardboard....really wishing I used some anerobic sealant. If you aren't in a hurry, I'd find a better pump. People have used the ABH pump that supposedly pumps more. Good luck, rooting for you to get it on the road....Tom

hoospiders

thanks for the reply tom. based on your experience and re-reading the related repair manual pages a dozen times, i threaded the hole and used it for the stop plate bolt. so far, so good.

still need to drain the rest of the old gas out of the tank, put in a new fuel pump, put the plug wires back on, get the radiator, oil cooler, and condenser back on the car, put the fans back in place, and turn the key!