Ok, here is my water pump story. I had a new water pump installed last June as the bearing had gone out on the old one. After about a 1,ooo miles between then and last week, I checked the fluids on my coach a week ago to get ready to go to the West Coast Rally in Felton.  Didn't see any coolant so I poured some in. Heard a water sound under the coach. That didn't sound right so I looked under it. Green fluid the same as I had just poured in was coming out the bottom. Seal was obviously gone on the water pump as was evident when looked at with my mechanic's mirror. No big problem as I was prepared.  I had a spare pump that I had bought last June when the prior replacement was done. Not having done it before and since the pump is as deep as you can get from any side and is behind the radiator and the fan is inside the shroud, it took me until midday on Sunday, but I got it done. Filled up the coolant and ran the engine and all was well. Over the next several days, Jane finished stocking the inside of the coach.

Thursday midday we filled up with propane, gas and headed out. We made it 25 miles and I noticed that the warm air from the dash vents suddenly stopped being warm and was now cool. Hmmm. About 30 seconds later I looked at the guages and the engine coolant temp was over 250 degrees. Quickly pulled to the right and slowed way down and saw the temp drop to about 220-230 very quickly. Hmmm.  Continued a half mile to the truck scales and pulled to the back and stopped.  With the engine idling the temp dropped to 212. Relieved the pressure in the radiator and no excess pressure or bubbling over. Hmmm.  Called a couple of people and consulted.  They and I decided that it must be a stuck thermostat. Since the engine was at a safe temp when rpm was under 1500 rpm, I decided to take the back roads home and deal with it there.  Limped back at 25-30 mph and got to Dixon before my neighbor's son closed his shop so I pulled in and asked if he could replace the thermostat before going home.  He agreed and I called the Napa store a short distance away and sent Jane down to get a thermostat. It isn't the right one but a working wrong type is better than a non-working correct type I figured.  An hour later it was installed and we fired up the engine and lo and behold NOTHING had changed. Tired and discouraged I drove the 15 blocks home.  I thought about it and reasoned that there are only two moving parts to a cooling system: the thermostat and the water pump and they had both just been replaced. The interior of the engine was hot, but the radiator while warm was relatively cool. Conclusion: the new water pump must not be pumping! Called Eric and asked him what he thought and he said the same thing: it must be the pump. Pulled the pump that night and you could easily turn the impeller on the shaft. The impeller had lost it's friction grip on the shaft and wasn't turning. Very unusual according to both Jim Black and Leslie Hoagland.

Friday morning took both bad pumps to RVS in Morgan Hill (five hour round trip) and got two fresh pumps and had Jim spot weld the impellers to the shafts so that the impellers couldn't come loose. I wasn't going to have the same problem twice! By Friday afternoon I started installing one of the two pumps I just picked up and got it installed late that afternoon. Started to put the spacers and pully and fan on and lo and behold, they wouldn't fit onto the hub. Dang it, I am determined to make it to Felton and the Rally. Well, I have the other pump so I test the spacers and pulley and they go on it fine so I pull off the pump I just put on and put the other fresh pump on and and the spacers, pulley and fan. Put in coolant and fire it up at 9:00pm and all is good! By 10:00pm I have all of the tools put away and cleaned up. I have a dish of ice cream and go to bed so that we can get an early start for the rally in the morning. We arrived at the rally three minutes before we had to leave for the steam train ride! All was good. 

Moral of the story: none!  Just be as prepared as is reasonable, have some tools, a few spare parts, go to rallies so that you have phone numbers of some fellow FMC'ers that you can call for advice when needed, be determined and persistant (or stubborn if you prefer) and you to will have a great time with your coach at rallies and other places. I had to install three water pumps to make it, but it was worth it!

See you at the next Rally,