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Subject:Power steering pump and old coolant hoses
From:Edward Maglott
Date:Sat, 6 Jan 2007 14:04:33 -0500

I have been driving around with no power steering belt since mine fell off
a year or two ago.  I like the additional road feel of not having the power
steering going.  Also, my old pump was making an annoying noise.  So now
that my vanagon is my daily driver, I'm getting a little more aware of the
heavy steering in parking lots and low speed situations.  So I swapped in
the pump from my parts van.  No noise, that's nice.  And it's nice to have
easy steering in low speeds, but I still don't like the lack of road feel
at higher speeds.

In the process of putting the belt on, I had to disconnect that small
cooling hose that runs from the right head to up by the expansion tank.  It
fell apart at the top end, so I cut off 1/2 inch and put it back
on.  Started up the van and water squirting out at the other end of the
hose.  With its advanced age, and my pulling on it, it let go.  Replaced it
with not too much trouble.  While I was doing that I noticed a nasty
looking hose that needs to be replaced.  (this is a 2.1 engine.)  Its about
3 inches long and joins two metal pipes.  One goes to the water pump and
the other goes to the right head area.  What size is that hose?

Edward