3.0 woes, 1989 caravan water pump

In my 1989 Dodge caravan 3.0. I have a leak that I thought first started in
the central cooling tube, because that is where the majority of the coolant
was coming from at the rear of the engine, And replaced the entire tube
assembly. Put in more water, and it still there is water coming out of the
tube area. BTW, I also had broken the timing belt at the time of the first
leak. So I went in and replaced the pump, the front main seal, and the
timing belt, started to fill with coolant a little at a time and found
coolant leaking from a small port on the lower left side of the pump. After
looking at the old pump, I discovered that the port leads to what I think is
the pressure release port, up against the pump shaft. No part of the gasket
area covers this, and I do not know what to do, because this port is open
ended, and there is nothing to stop the coolant from free-flowing from this
port. Any suggestions out there on what my options are? The manuals show no
diagrams on this nor do they talk about this port. I did not look to see if
there was coolant leaking from the tube area, as I got a bit frustrated with
this new leak.

Thanks,

Dave

 

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.

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

 

It is possibly justified for a professional mechanic to go with a complete

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

 

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

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.

 

--
DAVID THORNTON

I feel your pain. My brother had the Ford Fiesta, which is the Rabbit in
ford clothing. Same deal with the water pump. For some stupid reason, the
HONDA dealership gave him nearly 3 grand for trade-in for that non working
POS. He bought a new CIVIC. That was in the mid- 90's.

Anyway, The part that needed replacing in my situation was the casing, or
2nd half, because the hole that received the tube had allot of corrosion,
and that was what was causing the first leak way at the beginning. A new
"O" ring would not have helped, and it didn't, because I replaced the tubes
before replacing the pump, and it leaked even worse after that. Nobody, not
even a dealership carried just the casing, or second half as a stand alone
part. you either got the pump half, or you got the whole thing.

Anyway, I placed the new pump in, replaced all the "O" rings again for good
measure, and resealed all the water outlets, including the intake. I waited
24 hours before adding coolant because I wanted to give the silicone sealant
time to cure. I added coolant tonight, and there are no leaks yet. Still
need to put the engine back together, and start it, for the ultimate test,
but for now, the radiator is full and there are no leaks.

Thanks for your wisdom and guidance!

Dave