Looking through the archives for diesel topics I came upon a reply by Martin
Jagersand (week 2 July 99 "82Diesel cooling problem") to a overheating
problem on a diesel vanagon. As Martin has a very nice diesel only website my
eyes perked up for the "real scoop". He stated in his reply that he had
inspected 3 diesel engines whose demise was related to overheating caused by
the wrong waterpump. Wrong being the more common Rabbitt/Jetta type vs. the
correct Vanagon pump. The difference between the two is in the hub and pulley
not in the impeller. Question: My 79 Rabbitt diesel has the alternator-pivot
tensioning method and works fine even though it has "shallow angle contact"
on the waterpump pulley. The Vanagon has a awkward but larger angle contact 2
belt pulley system which is harder to adjust. Scott Foss Turbo Diesels
offered a single belt conversion for Vanagons using a different pump
(Rabbitt/Jetta?), waterpump pulley, crankshaft pulley, and one single belt.
What am I missing here? By looking at the stock Vanagon set-up I could use
one long belt and tension it at the alternator pivot but maybe the belt
doesn't contact the pulleys properly? Why not just copy the Rabbitt/Jetta
layout?