so I was taking care of a squealing belt on the RamCharger just now -
the water pump belt, in fact, and as I was finishing up tightening the
power steering belt (water pump is run by two belts, one is
crank-water-power steering, the other is crank-water-air pump, which I
just put back into service to help the squeal issue) I noticed some
clear liquid dripping from the engine onto the front cross member.
My first thought was power steering fluid since I'd moved the pump
around quite a bit, but when I got underneath and caught some in my
hand it wasn't thick or slippery enough. I scooted forward a bit, and
found that it was coming from the bottom of the timing chain cover
right behind the crank pulley, at about 2 drips per second, and the
small puddle on the ground was green.
I cursed a bit, finished buttoning up the belts, and started it to see
if I'd fixed the squeal, and to see if I'd be taking a shower in the
process. The squeal was gone and so was the leak. I took a spin
around a few blocks, still no squeal, and no leak. I shut it down, and
there was still no leak (it had been off for about 15 minutes when I
first saw the leak).
Any ideas what I might be looking at here? I'm thinking it has to be a
bad waterpump seal at the drive shaft, and when it cools it no longer
seals, and leaks but when it's hot, it seals. Any other thoughts? I
don't really want to do a frontend teardown on that truck without a
garage..... My landlord probably doesn't want me to, either - bad
enough parking two trucks and a sailboat when most other tenants have
one car =)
-- Mike Maskalans <http://mike.tepidcola.com/dodge/> 84 RamCharger 4x4 360 98 Dakota CC 4x4 318 mobile.612.618.4652 home.585.935.7129 fax.360.364.3930
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