Hi,
I was the original poster on the vacuum failure thread. Since then I have been through much trouble trying to locate the timing gear that runs the pump and have just located one in Germany. Now I need to learn how do that job that is much more involved than just 6 screws and 15 minuets time.

I wish that I had replaced the pump preventatively. It is true that the redesigned pump will not explode ball bearings but as we found out last week failures can and will occur in other areas.

New pump by Pierburg was $390 but I have found it for much less since then at http://www.***************/ on sale and at Amazon.

Happy motoring.