Over the last week or so the work I’ve done on the car has mostly taken the form of tinkering with the water pump and the timing belt cover to try and figure out why the one was rubbing on the other. I eventually landed on “maybe the water pump itself is somehow canted or otherwise no longer in spec”, and decided to remedy this by ordering a new, aftermarket pump.
Pump and Pulley
After unbolting the original pump, replacing it with the new one, and reinstalling the timing belt cover, pulley, and fan clutch I checked the clearance and found… no change! It obviously wasn’t a problem with the pump. Since the new one was already on the car I left it there. I’ll add the pump to the list of spare parts I have to keep, trade, or sell.
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