In a message dated 12/13/2000 6:59:43 PM Pacific Standard Time,
TCarrington@RELITECH.COM writes:

> The good news is that the t-stat housing bolts to the old  *water pump*, not
>  the block. So if this is indeed the bolt in question, then if he breaks it
>  off the worst case scenario is having to find a hardware store to buy a
>  replacement bolt.
>

I've got a worser case scenario. when going in to replace the thermostat the
3" bolt in my 1.9 liter (1983.5 westy) that holds the thermostat housing to
the water pump was siezed inside my upper thermostat housing.  The bolt would
not turn. so I removed the water pump and upper thermostat housing as one
unit and tried to get the 3" bolt out of the upper thermostat housing on the
bench. The bolt broke with the shaft still seized in the upper thermostat
housing (UTH from now on) and I had bent the UTH in the process.

problem is the new UTH costs $230 from the VW dealer and the VW dealer is the
only supplier. Mind you it has no working parts. It is just a molded piece of
aluminum that lets the coolant flow between the thermostat and the water
pump. So that $230 is a hard pill to swallow.

So the repair can be costly. But I think it's a more simple repair than
breaking a stud in the engine for what that's worth. There is of course
waiting for the part. I have found Camelback VW in pheonix, arizona a good
resource for discount genuine VW vanagon parts which they sell for 25% over
wholsale cost--I think. It's the cheapest VW dealer in my experience. And
they ship.

There is the option of finding a used UTH. But from my experience this can be
frustrating. I bought a used one from a list vendor. The UTH attaches to the
water pump on one side and then has a flange that links it to a short coolant
hose that leads to the cylinder head. When I went to remove the flange from
the used UTH because that flange was pitted, and because I didn't know if I
could trust the gasket between the UTH and the flange the bolts attaching the
flange to the UTH sheered--leaving the used UTH i had just purchased unusable
without some drilling and rethreading which I was not in a position to do. So
I had to eat the $75 I spent on the used UTH (When I contacted the vendor
after one of the bolts on the used UTH sheered he told me I should not have
tried to replace the pitted flange, just should have used it as it was, even
though I had also ordered the gasket that goes between the flange and UTH at
the time I ordered the used UTH. Suckers walk.) And then I went to see the
dealer for the $230 part. Once I had it the whole thing went together without
a hitch.

I hope some of this helps.

Good luck
Jeff
83.5 Westy
LA, CA

 and when I went to remove and replace the old pitted flange from the used
UTH those bolts busted.