I thought it would be a good idea to share this info with the forum as it will save anyone who has the same problem the weeks of fruitless web research, and countless phone calls that I went through.
Problem 1: The fresh water circulation pump for my Volvo AQD21 diesel engine started leaking, dumping its coolant in to the bilges. It wasn't so bad that we couldn't make it home but it required the addition of coolant every three hours or so, with all the associated bother of mooring up and allowing the engine to cool down when it overheated. The marine engineer I finally called out told me this problem was only going to get worse as the seal on the pump seemed to be irreversibly blown. So I decided to replace the pump.
Problem 2: After a few calls I soon established that Volvo Penta have discontinued the following parts:
826870 - pump for fresh water cooling (for AQD21a)
875272 - pump repair kit (for AQD21a)
Thus followed weeks of calls both around the UK and USA trying to find a replacement part, but to no avail. Anyone who advertises the pump does not have one and I was told on several occasions that replacement pumps for this engine are like gold dust. Looking for the corresponding Peugeot engine part also proved to be in vain. I began to worry that I was looking at re-engining to solve the problem, which would have cost more than the boat is worth.
Solution: Happily my engineer finally found SP Water Pumps
http://www.spwaterpumps.co.uk/ in Cheshire who were able to refurbish my pump. It has been refitted and now works fine.
Conclusion: If you have the same problem as me do yourself a favour, save yourself the time, effort, anxt and cost of looking elsewhere.
Volvo Penta AQD21 - leaking pump (part 826870)
Linear Mode
