Vacum pump - Rebuild or replace?
 

The vacum pump in my wifes car went out over the weekend. I was out of town so I haven't researched anything yet. I thought I'd start by asking you guys. How dificult is this going to be and what kind of cost am I looking at? Should I rebuild it or get a new one. Any advice, hints, tips, and tricks are appreciated.

Thanks
Chris

" I thought I'd start by asking you guys"

"Us Guys" have posted a lot of information about vacuum pumps rebuilds.... so your best bet FIRST is to use the search feature... then if you don't understand something come back with a specific question....

..and in using the search feature,
 

I think you will find that (most of the time) vacuum pumps can and should be rebuilt.

Cheers,
Wes

I looked into some prices. Wow. $300+ for a re-manufactured one in my part of the country. Only about $60 for a rebuild kit. I think I'll re-build. Anything I should watch out foor. Will the pump shoot out part or anything when i take it appart?

Thanks again.

rebuilding it is easy. The worst part of the job is getting it out, cleaning the old gasket and back in. This you have to do anyway - the rebuild part is easy and fun. First, clean the whole area around the unit. Don't be such a stubborn s**t like me and try to remove it without getting anything else out of the way first. Please, at least remove the P/S belt and probably the fan. When you remove the screws, make sure you have picked out the crud inside the hexagonal recesses and then tap the wrench or socket unit into it so you have maximum engagement. If you strip one, you'll probably regret it. Use a mirror. Crack a beer.:)

Well, I couldn't find any rebuild kits locally. The one place that said they had them tried to sell me something else b/c thier computer was wrong. So I ended up ordering from Performance Parts. Sure hope it gets here by friday. And it sure is good to hear that the rebuild should be pretty easy. Thanks Pete.

Here's an update on the rebuild of the vacuum pump. When disconecting the metal tube from the top of it a bunch of rust fell out. Turns out that it was the rust plugging up the line. We tested (at the pump) for vacuum & decided it was giving plenty. We coonected everything back together to see if that was the fix we needed. Since we fixed that problem, a bunch of new leaks started showing their ugly heads. We finally chased it down to the central locking system. I by-passed it & now I'm watching it for a few days to see if any symptoms show up agian.

The three-way connections and some of the other vacuum bits are inexpensive. The locking system actuators and the HVAC actuators can be rebuilt too.

With a Mityvac you can isolate various parts of each system and check them.

Good luck with your continuing troubleshooting (and keep us posted on what you find).

Cheers,
Wes