So I was at Olds Nationals in Gettysburg last Friday and was walking through parts areas with a friend, Eric who recently bought a 68 442 (I have had one also since 2011). My friend was stoked about the KA water pump pulley since I told him my car’s story as having it on the car and not knowing the significance on top of all the other W30 indicators. He had me help look through a few crates of pulleys looking for the “elusive” (in Chris Witt’s words, RIP Chris) KA pulley. I repeatedly told him we would never in a million years come to an Olds event (let alone Olds Nationals) and find that pulley unless it was for unbelievable money. We went to a table and found one (which shut me up for a little), that was so pitted and sand blasted (but had a barely discernible “KA” on it)... Tag said $500.00 and person selling wasn’t there as one of the people behind table said it had to be $5.00, not $500... I told him it is rare and marked correct and woman who got into discussion confirmed it was $500. So we walk about 10 more minutes and come up to a spot where a very nice older fellow from Oklahoma had a wire tied set of crank and water pump pulleys that had yellow paint pen marks that it was for 68-69 W30 442. I picked up the set that was in a 100% better shape then one I mentioned above that was $500.00 (that must have been in the bottom of a water barrel for 40 years). The large pulley (waterpump) was in fact marked KA and the set was in great shape. The tag said $200.00 and when we asked the seller about it (I was excited it said $200.00), he looked at the tag and said he didn’t know who wrote that on it ($200.00 price). Both Eric and I first felt guilty that he might have thought that we wrote that on it (neither of us would do that), and he said $50.00 for the set! Eric bought the set (obviously) and for the next hour he was scratching his head that it had to be a repop but I explained to him it is exactly like mine and is a set for $50.00... Even a repop that could possibly look that original could not be sold for that cheap. We returned a little later because I told Eric the waterpump may be a special height meant for that set of pulleys (I wasn’t sure at the time, just knew I never had to worry about that myself as my car came with the KA waterpump pulley and everything lines up ok. So now I am scratching my head as to how something that I knew never could happen to me or Eric at any parts swap (finding a KA waterpump pulley for such a reasonable price), and was thankful to find out that this seller jur set up Friday as Thursday was a complete rain-out (and we were only there Friday)... Meant to be for a good friend!

Here’s the interesting part that I hope someone can explain... The fellow from Oklahoma had other parts he said all were extra parts he was cleaning out as he had W30’s in the past. He had one waterpump that had 398681 on it, and Eric bought it for $40.00... It would be somewhat reasonable to deduct that the waterpump might have been on the same car as the pulley set, but the listing under the Mondello chart shows this as 69-69 400 and 455 W-30, W-32 or Hurst/Olds without AC or HD Cooling. What W-30 didn’t have HD cooling? Every thread I see says 400269 (with A/C or HD Cooling)... Is the 398681 correct for a W-30 in 68-69? Just curious as Eric feels he got the wrong water pump (and that the 400269 is correct). Any thoughts on what W-30 in 68-69 did not have HD Cooling?
Thanks!