Date:         Fri, 14 Feb 2003 01:38:57 EST
Reply-To:     THX0001@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         George Goff <THX0001@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Cold Temps....Hard to Start and Squealing Belts-Maybe Not the
              Belts
Comments: To: jasondenton@ATTBI.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

In a message dated 2/13/03 10:04:47 PM, jasondenton@ATTBI.COM writes:

<<  . . . I just replaced all the belts and the problem persists.   . . .
Any ideas?   . . .


1).  Is the water pump going? >>

Jason,

I had this problem once.  Occasionally on starting, the belts, or so I
thought, would produce a squealing sound from the very bowels of hell.  I
went through the drill of installing new belts and tensioning them properly
before I noticed the excessive axial float of the water pump.  It was a
fairly new one of those
why-spend-the-extra-money-it-is-as-good-as-the-OE-part pumps from you know
who (name withheld because I can't abide the endless babble its mention will
provoke).  The squealing was from the chatter as the errant impeller milled
away the engine case.  What threw me was that the defective water pump never
leaked a drop of coolant and it had no radial slop.

George