But It’s Just A Simple Job…

aka WayTooFurious

Ever told yourself "this won’t take long" when starting a job on your car? I did this on Saturday, and unfortunately I was wrong. The water pump on my 265 Hemi had given up the ghost, and replacing these is usually a pretty easy job—all you need to do is remove the radiator and hoses, unbolt the fan and then remove the water pump and replace it with the new unit. But of course, the new water pump didn’t take: I noticed a leak so I had to repeat the process to reseal it. When I removed the radiator a second time the cooling tube that runs from the transmission into the bottom of the radiator cracked, but the only way to replace it required dropping the exhaust! What should have been an hour-long job wound up taking me about half a day. And the annoying thing about all of this is that I only replaced the water pump a couple of years ago. Recently I also went through two converters for my LPG (propane) system in one year! I have spoken to some friends and we have all come to the same conclusion—there’s a ton of parts on the market that are not being made with the same quality as compared to 20 or 30 years ago. After all, my other Plymouth is 40 years old but it still has the original water pump, and a recent exam showed it to be in great condition. What do you think, are some repo parts not being made as well as they should be?

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Posted at 7:09 am in Dispatch From Down Under, Guest Blogger, Mopar, Parts

Comments

GTwildfire
Jul 30, 2008 at 2:10 am

use purple ice in the cooling system. Aside from reducing the surface tension of coolant and making it work more efficiently, it’ll also lubricate the water pump and reduce scale and other deposits. It’s something like 17 bucks per bottle, but people I know swear by it. I put it into every ride, but make sure the system is flushed and working properly beforehand.

7urtle
Jul 29, 2008 at 5:13 pm

hell ya simple audio set up turned into work

Junimrox
Jul 29, 2008 at 1:31 pm

If you’re just replacing, not upgrading, factory parts are always better then the replacements.
my fathers car is 23 years old, some parts last for 20 years, but when replaced the new one only last 1 or 2 years… it’s sad that happens, because with the tecnology we have avaiable nowadays this should not happen, parts should be better and better.

I feel like babbling
Jul 29, 2008 at 1:16 pm

Water pumps have a cushy ride with the belt. I have actually recovered pumps that let out a drop in the time to change areas..I can’t say they are getting worse to buy a new rebuilt. Try cleaning the fan, balance problem, wobbly belt, maybe pulley wiggling around.Crap in the system, shavings eating seals. Stubborn thermostats can make any pump the failing jerk of the system. On and on.. It is in my thoughts everything I buy seems a bit better. I babble ab out the water pump because of my areas extreme seasons. All 17 past cars let out a dribble in the hole of pumps…and then go back to normal.I tend to ignore them. Also a balanced engine by nature is more likely to recover. A dodge six is not one of them. Sorry. why is the valve cover blue? I do not know dodge colors I guess.. I had a ford 200 once. Anyway..new parts most often better for me.

Pixel
Jul 29, 2008 at 12:21 pm

I think part of the problem with things like water pumps for older engines is that they’ve probably been rebuild at least a few times by now.

Some of these engines haven’t been made for 20, 30, or more years so by now all the reman parts are stuff that had been remanned a few times.

That being said, I agree the quality has gone down the toilet. I had two reman generators in a row *catch fire* on my Bug last year. The third one the parts store gave me was a brand new Bosch in a reman box.