Posted by RDavis on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 at 11:39PM :
My first experience with a WM300 251 waterpump enlightened me to the fact that just asking for a waterpump for a 251,no matter what year would always net me a waterpump that looked nothing like the one in my PW. That is when I came to learn that it is a special application only waterpump & housing. Actually it never needs to be removed from the engine, only the removable impeller casting that has the shaft and impeller using 4 bolts to secure it to the housing, almost identical to the ones used on the big block 440. It is such a small piece to work on, they use hard rubber or plastic type impellers,hardly anything to it and would seem to be very easy to rebuild by the common PW owner if someone would sell us the seal and bushing pieces needed to do it.
In the past couple years NAPA and many other parts houses have stopped carrying these waterpumps and they once could be had for around $25.00 rebuilt at that time SO, how can it be justified ,charging $75.00 + for such a small piece of work with very little in parts ? If I can ever find #'s for the parts needed and can buy them and we rebuild our own for a fraction of the cost, I promise I'll post the sources for everyone to use! I'm tired of being gouged at every turn! Everyone says BUY AMERICAN! Well I have
no respect for AMERICANS who gouge their own
people beyond what is reasonable and fair. What they don't realize is that their killing the golden goose they benefit from.
I had not entended to say all this when I started but as I typed I became really PO'd at the thought of it all. You can't get the parts or the sources are kept secret from us to rebuils many things we could do ourselves and would enjoy doing ourselves. Hell we're lucky we can still get carb rebuild kits and those old fuel pumps will last a lifetime if we could get the rebuild parts.We must search out those people with the books and info on how to do some of the rebuilds,surely it must be posted or available somewhere out there in the vast cyber space. Seals,bushings,and other parts #'s to cross referrence other sources will give us independence.
How PO'd would you be if ,one day they stopped selling brake parts for you to rebuild your own and instead told you ,bring your car to our shop and we'll do your brakes for 10 times the cost of what you could do them for yourself?
Follow Ups: