Re: Alpha 1 Gen 2 water pump replacement
mark1905: I was in exactly the same spot as you 13 months ago about to tackle my first a1g2 water pump replacement. What made sense to me was be prepared to replace all the parts including the pump housing so I bought the complete oem 817275q05 kit; this shows being for alpha and vazer drives. What I found in the kit was instead of the 3 separate pump housing gasket pieces, there was a 1 piece "faceplate" (866233001) that has a rubberized bottom, steel mid-section, then rubber edge lip that the pump housing fit over and impossible to not align properly; no sealer needed. As in the instructions Don included above, I did use 2 alignment pins (91-821571A1) and installation was a breeze. The full kit included all the seals, seal installation tool, quad ring, drain plug seal, water pump tube o-rings and even the carrier assembly that is below the faceplate in case I wanted to replace that also. Any extra parts from the kit I did not use simply went in a ziplock bag with a label. In November I wanted to check my impeller after sucking in some sand and found it still looking new and I simply installed a new $10 1 piece faceplate (the original one looked fine but just always feel it appropriate to replace any seals/gaskets). One thing to watch out for is that the face seal itself: the one in the complete kit was a bit smaller than the one that was installed and did not cover the shaft opening to my satisfaction so I bought the seal kit (816575a2) for $6 that did have the slightly larger seal; just make to match the one that comes off to the new one you get. So while this kit will cost a bit more than just an impeller and gasket, at least all components were new.
Mark
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