[Alb]

What is the age/mileage on those belts?

 

[Alb]

Crude comparison:

Alarm bells should be ringing.

 

[Alb]

I'm betting that a lot of owners simply don't know what they are getting.

They assume OEM without necessarily specifying it in the first place or checking that's what will be supplied.

There's another route to cost saving and that's not to replace the original if it's in good order.

It isn't a service item and the risk of failure is very low if the mileage at 10 years is also low.

 

[Alb]

The water pump has always been a service item in my eyes and you'd have to be fool to think otherwise, what's happened to me is proof of that.

I'm kind of half with you on that.

Either replace it with an OEM part or not at all.

I've been following these cars for 15 years and I have never come across catastrophic failure of an original pump.

I've seen numerous examples of pattern parts failing.

 

[Alb]

Extra special care with that water pump!

 

[Alb]

Coming on nicely

Makes you appreciate how useful it is having a garage.

 

[Alb]

Interesting to see a roller being used on the sealant.

It's the way the manual shows how to do it but I rarely see the advice being followed.

 

[Alb]

I remember the old days of cork gaskets :lol:

 

[Alb]

At least the sump is seldom disturbed.

The bane of my life used to be the rocker cover gasket. Once disturbed, they rarely remained oil tight and even if you replaced the gasket, the cover was often distorted through over tightening so still wouldn't seal.

 

[Alb]

One of those jobs where patience is a necessity.

 

[Alb]

As long as you have good dimensional information it should be possible to source an O Ring independently.

Assume the originals are Viton?

 

[Alb]

It's one of those things you just can't get from the workshop manual but increasingly important as cars get older.

 

[Alb]

Does that include any fixed pipework or is it just the hose?

 

[Alb]

Not so bad but I suppose still extortionate.

 

[Alb]

Looks like the sun has been shining :lol:

 

[Alb]

Are the steering pipes easy to access?

 

[Alb]

Good one for the back burner then :yep:

 

[Alb]

A discussion with Andy would be a good idea.

Must admit that I don't actually see how a tension issue would cause the belt to move axially.

 

[Alb]

Belt position must be governed by the crankshaft sprocket.

It's the only one which restrains the belt axially.

Having said that, it's not actually disturbed as part of the installation.

Perhaps it just needs to run a little longer (up to working temperature maybe) before everything finally settles?

 

[Alb]

Are you saying that the surface of the tensioner wheel is not parallel with the belt (hence it's applying a lateral force)?