PRV v6 Water Pump Bolts

I am in the process of replacing the water pump on my 1988 780 v6.
When I got the new water pump it came without the back plate, so you
have to swap out the old one. The back plate is held on with 4 hex
bolts, which were a bugger to get off. When I finally got them out, I
noticed that two of them have aluminum stripped from the body of the
old water pump. At first I thought the bolts were stripped, but it
appears that only the threads in the old water pump body are stripped.

I checked with my local Volvo dealer and they say they can't even
order the bolts. My questions are:

1. Has anyone else ever had this problem?

2. Is there any reason not to just get an ordinary bolt of the right
length and threads per inch to replace these?

3. Is there a source for these bolts?

Thanks in advance.

 

They can order them, did they try and find that they're no longer
available? That said, any bolt of the correct thread and length will
work, just try to get plated ones to keep corrosion down. Note that
lots of bolts are 7mm on the V6 (and the new all aluminum engines too)
which can be a little harder to source.

P.S. I've always got all the 7mm bolts I've needed directly from the
dealer.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Thanks Mike. I did end up getting some regular bolts that seem to fit
just fine. I went to my local non-volvo dealer parts place/shop and
they got some that fit something on an 850.

The dealer just said he couldn't order them and shrugged his
shoulders. I don't generally have long conversations with the dealer's
counter man lol. Half of them don't even know what a 780 looks like.
Far easier to talk to the other guys when you need something
different.

 

Just a follow up question. I finally got everything bolted together
and all the new hoses on, except the heater hose that goes from the
water pump under the intake manifold. The darn hose seems to be way
too small to fit on the steel pipes. The old one looks way bigger,
but it was probably stretched. My parts man told me its just standard
heater hose. Anyone know if that is true?

The Haynes manual and volvo say to removed the intake manifold to do
this job, but I can get to the hose clamps to tighten them without
doing that. My parts guy said its not necessary to remove the
manifold, but I sure don't how I am gonna get that heater hose on
without removing it, or getting a larger hose.

 

I no longer have a V6, but ISTR the hose going into the back of the
water pump was a 3/4 heater hose, not the more common 5/8.

Lift the manifold. Not a hard job, really. Mind you, when I did it
I had an LPG mixer instead of the injection system, so lots less
plumbing...

IIRC, the inlet manifold ports on the heads are O-ringed, so there
is no gasket to be replaced. There were only about 8 bolts holding
it down, so it's just a case of disconnecting the throttle cable,
fuel lines and wiring, pulling out the bolts and lifing the whole
lot off.

While you can get at it, overhaul the (spark) distributor - new
cap, rotor, etc. and new leads. You have to do almost that much
work to get to the dissy anyway, so you may as well do it while
the manifold is off and the dissy is easy to get to!

 

I think are right about that hose. I measured the hose they gave me
and it was about 1/16" shy of 5/8 (unstretched). I measured the OD of
the pipe on the water pump and it was about 1/16" larger than 3/4". I
will get a 3/4" hose today.

Good advice on the distributor, and manifold as well. I don't know
how we ever worked on cars without the collective knowledge of the
internet - thanks.