Ever since I've had the car, it's had some minor incontinence (dampnes on the garage floor only), thought to be from a rubber hose. On the way back from the National, it got a little worse, but far from terminal.

Deciding investigate and give the car a clearly needed flush out made maters worse and I now reckon there's a pin hole in the pipe (TKC 2045) near the back, above the starter motor. The question is how do I disconnect it from the back of the water pump and get it out to inspect / replace? The pipe appears to be stuck in the nut (101302) and I don't want to break anything!

Thanks

Without looking at a car, am I correct in thinking that removing the water pump housing from the engine, would allow you to inspect this problem a lot better?
If this is the case, looking at it on the bench and from all angles is certainly easier than trying to wrestle with it whilst leaning into the engine bay and working around other ancilliaries, using a lead light.
It may seem like a lot of work, but it may be easier in the long run.

Does CW do a stainless replacement for this pipe?

Colin.

Hello David,

there are two hexagons where the pipe enters the water pump, one (larger) is the adapter that screws into the water pump and cannot be unscrewed without removing the pipe. You need to unscrew the smaller of the two, this is a compression fitting with an olive on the pipe.

These pipe do rust through and I suggest you get a new pipe (and olive) prior to trying to dismantle it as it may well be damaged further in the removal process.

Alec

WD40 the two unions that screw into the rear of the water pump housing. Spanner them back and forth - maybe they will work loose. My leak in that spot was years ago, whilst on a stage rally. It appeared to be the pipe which I thought I could tape up. It actually was the core plug !! A piece of internal iron had rusted a pin hole ..... how does one fix that in 5 minutes ? Self tapping screw and exhaust paste. Maybe its possible to unbolt the waterpump and turn the whole thing anticlockwise to undo the larger nut. OR saw through the pipe to remove, and solder a repair piece.

your profile states that both your cars are S models .. on these, due to the shape / fixings, I have never successfully removed that pipe, without removing the exhaust manifold, pulling it back from the head and extracating the pipe upwards ... and they always rust out .. and Chris Witor DOES do a stainless steel version .. specify that it is for an S model .. or it will be without the "T" piece which feeds into the inlet manifold .. removing the exhaust manifold is ALOT easier with the bonnet off .... GOOD LUCK !! Andy Harrison ... and you were looking for a quick fix ?? !!.....

Thanks for your collected wisdom. I'm getting the message that trying to get the pipe out in one pice may be well nigh impossible, so I very much suspect its a hacksaw and call to Mr Witor.

Being a good Scot, I will have one final go a seprating the unions first, though...

Thanks. Much appreciated

Hello David,

one little point, Steve recommended WD40, Plus Gas is much better for that application, but if it has a pinhole it will probably be weak so don't be too enthusiastic with the spanners.

Alec

You say leak is at the firewall end so probably at the tee piece, not that it really matters
Experence tells me that the exhaust manifold will have to be unbolted from the head and pulled clear to allow the pipe to come out.
The union nut should undo with a bit of work.Seem to remember I ground an old open end spanner to be a tight fit and used a pair of visegrips to hold the larger fitting nearest the water pump.
The best of British luck to you Sir !

Hi Andy,

Um, why? Leaning in from the front?

Cheers,
Mike.