The waterpump saga

A few months ago, the waterpump on my 1963 Humber failed -- and failed so badly as to be unrepairable. Then began the search for a replacement. No new ones were available anywhere and all the secondhand ones were nearly as bad as the one that failed.

After several months of hoping that the main supplier of Humber parts would turn up a usable secondhand one, I was feeling pretty hopeless about the matter. So I tried my last hope. I rang the mechanic associated with the local Humber club and asked him if perchance he had one.

He did not but said to bring out the old one and he would see what he could do. He is a very clever man so what he did was take parts from my old pump plus a couple of other failed pumps he had saved and put together what was virtually one brand new waterpump!

Dieter was the one who had been hunting for a replacement waterpump on my behalf so I took the "new" one straight around to him and said: "Have a look at this". So we both stood there for a few minutes staring in admiration at this shiny new carpart. Anyone watching would have thought that we were rather mad but if they knew how this perfect solution to a long quest had suddenly emerged, they would understand.

The Humber is now back on the road as good as ever.