99 Ranger 4 cyl. coolant leaking near water pump

Bought the truck new Feb 99 and I have put on 164,000 reliable miles, but now my 99 ranger 4 cyl. is leaking coolant somewhere around the water pump area. It doesn't seem to be coming from the weep hole and the bearings and shaft seem to still be tight on the water pump. So it looks like I have a project to work on. I figure I will replace the water pump , thermostat, timing belt, serpentine belt, hoses. My question is, has anyone tackled this project before? Anything else I need to replace while I have it tore down? And is there anything to watch out for? Or any tips to use, to make the project go easier? I have the Haynes manual to work from. Any ideas what this job would cost for a shop to do it? Is it worth doing myself?

Thanks, Ken

Reply to
Ken
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sure its worth doing yourself. You may want to also consider looking for any freeze plugs which may be corroded through if you can't find the leak on the logical suspects. If the water pump has never been changed, sounds like you wont be wasting your money by changing it even if its not at fault.

"Ken" snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote inmessage news:VGQ3g.26459$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr30.news.prodigy.com...

Reply to
norm

I don't know if this helps, but I had a 90 mustang that had coolant leaking from the water pump. I am comparing these, because the mustang also had the 2.3L 4cyl. It turned out to be just the seal between the water pump and the engine that was leaking, but since a new pump was only $12 and I had to take the old one off to replace the seal, I just replaced the pump at the same time. I don't normally do a lot of work on my cars, but this only took me a half hour and the only tool I needed was a socket. This car had 180,000 miles and i was just driving into the ground to avoid putting too many miles on my new car (I drive

35000 a year!). I got rid of the car last summer, when the registration ran up, the engine was still going strong, but the body was shot. I just bought a 97 ranger last week to replace it, since it is a similar engine, I hope it will last me (although it is in the garage now, but that's another post!)
Reply to
Gadourym

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