Well, I've sucked all the coolant out of my 164 to change the

heater control valve, and while I'm in there I've also taken out

the heater box (ick -- the drain plug was plugged with crap and

there is stuff growing in the core).

I am also thinking of replacing the water pump. I have a pump

that I bought a while ago when I was kinda stupid and I didn't do

my research on what kind of water pump I should get. It is a

"meyle" brand water pump, with the markings "original-meyle-teile"

I'm thinking of replacing the pump because every once in a while

I see coolant sitting on the water pump housing and the pump is

a bit loud.

Is this a reasonable pump to get? I'm also having my radiator

recored and I'm replacing all the hoses. The radiator guy said

that there are modern cores that are more efficient than the oem

style; it cost some extra -- did I just pay for the equivalent

of regapping my diesel's glow plugs?

Are there any gotchas I need to watch for if I replace the pump?

Also should I worry about the balance of the fan? It's connected

directly to the pump without a fluid coupler thingy, but instead

it has two aluminum spacers that put the fan pretty close to the

radiator (one is about 2 inches long the other is about 3/4ths of

an inch). They don't really mate together very well, I might add.

It seems like if this is out of balance it would wobble the pump

shaft quite a lot and might wear it out kinda fast.

Thanks,

chris