Water Pump Update

[Mike Wattam <101714.1343@domain.elided>]

Dear All

You may remember I have been dealing with Unipart (the popular supplier of
this part to the Stag specialists) on the subject of water pump skew gear
failures, as little as 500 miles after fitting a new one.

I have now received a statement from Unipart, which basically says;

.  they know about the gears failing
.  they regard it as a generic weakness
.  they have reviewed many failures and say the gears are not at fault
.  any claims made are passed to the manufacturer for decision
.  they are confident there are no manufacturing defects
.  they will look at a failed unit on site if asked

Well, as far as I am concerned they are just ducking their responsibility
as I know very well that if you refit the 'old' water pump (with new seal,
bearings etc) it operates fine.  Besides which one of the TSR listed
suppliers is making extensive tests on this problem, apparently at the
request of Unipart!  So, I will pursue them further.  We have both the need
to stop this problem happening, and the need to get recompense for
failures.  It can cost a fortune to rebuild an engine once this failure
occurs.

If you would like a copy of the Unipart letter, please let me know.  I can
send it to you in scanned format (2 pages) or as a fax - in the latter case
please advise country as well as fax number.

If anybody has any comments to make, please let me have them during the
next week or so.  I would be particularly interested to hear from you if;
a.  you have a mangled pump you can send me from a past failure, or
b.  you have made a claim on you parts supplier, what was the result? or
c.  you have an engine with this problem now (UK only, sorry)

In view of the above, my advice continues to be:-

if your water pump starts leaking and the gear teeth are OK, rebuild it
with new seals and bearings.  This is quite easy and also is a tiny
fraction of the cost of a complete new pump!

Mike Wattam
Triumph Stag Register