My old 2 wheel 86 Vanagon had the same thing happen, at 55,000 miles.
The motor had about 1/4 inch ground out of it. I cleaned out
what I could see, and put a new water pump on. It ran for 7 more
years without any other problems until I sold it.

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler

On Wed, 27 Jan 1999, Vernon Craddock wrote:

> Hello again,
>
>         Thanks to all for the feedback on water pump changing.  Well, I decided to
> replace the water pump myself.  So far, it has been pretty easy, just
> messy.  Anyway, I pulled the old pump out and it was really trashed.  I
> guess I found the cause of the mysterious rattle I have been hearing.  The
> impeller has about 1/8" play in it and has not only ground off part of the
> pump, but ground about 1mm off of the block.  I suspect that the 1mm off
> will not help efficiency, but should not be a serious problem.  My concern
> is the obvious amount of metal filings present in the coolant around the
> pump. Is there a good way to flush this out?  Are there any nice magnetic
> plugs in there to collect filings like this?
>
> Please respond directly as my new job has required me to unsubscribe.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Vernon Craddock
> Vernon@Craddock.Com
>
> 1990 Standard Vanagon
>