Just a heads up, my stock AIR pump just froze up at 257,000 miles. Getting it out was easy enough putting it back in was another story. It didn't give my much warning either, just started making noises last night coming home from work, and seized solid this afternoon as I was heading in tonight. Happened right in my driveway so I just blew off a vacation day to work on it. Not too expensive, just a pain.
I have to do that too. Why was it hard to put back on? Any tips?
"But now is the time for the younger men to lock in rough encounters, time for me to yield to the pains of old age. But there was a day I shone among the champions."
Homer, The Illiad, 23.715-719 (800 BC). King Nestor of Pylos.
In order to make life easier don't try to work around the alternator, just take it out so you can get to the hose clamp and the upper bolt which by some strange coincidence just happens to be slightly longer than the space between the bracket and the fan shroud. You will need to put the car up on jackstands to get to the lower attachment point which is conveniently reversed (facing away) and inaccessible if you are using a standard ratchet.(I wound up using an offset boxed end wrench.) Once both bolts are removed the unit will just drop out, so make sure you don't leave any important parts of your anatomy under the car. Once removed you will discover that you need to transfer the pulley from the original to the replacement unit. Loads of fun trying to break lose those three bolts that haven't been turned since the car was assembled. (I used two ratchets, one set to tighten the other to loosen, you can get two of the three bolts off pretty easy this way, have fun with the third one, unless you remember to break lose all three before you begin removal.) Upon reinstalling the pump you have to put the top bolt in first, (trust me on this) but the pump will only go in from the bottom, so you have to balance the pump on the subframe within arms reach from the top, (did I mention your car is on jackstands?) reach down between the brackets and the fan shroud and try to lift the pump into alignment with the holes in the bracket, (Which you can't see from the angle you are working.) and with one hand holding the pump in perfect alignment try to get that oversized bolt to start in to the hole cast into the pump body (Right about now you discover that the replacement pump is 1mm longer than the original.) Your fingers will eventually tire, you will let them relax the pump will crash to the ground and you get to repeat the process. Eventually I figured out that the bushing pressed into the bracket can be pressed back out (using a decent size channel lock pliers) so you can make room for the new pump. If you try to avoid all the trouble of lifting the pump in to place from the top by anchoring the pump using the bottom strap first since you are already down there anyway, you will discover that the strap will quickly loosen and rotate about the single bolt screwed into the block causing alignment problems.
"patricktee" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
among the champions."
Great, thanks. i guess that means I will let my tenant do it. He is always broke and looking for work. I will supervise. My replacement has the surpentine pulley already on it, so that part will help anyway.
A Dealer tech told me the secret to these cars in his opinion after 20 years of working on them is an air ratchet. If you can't reach it with that, you are doing it wrong. I don't have one, but it helps me to visualize the process anyway.
"But now is the time for the younger men to lock in rough encounters, time for me to yield to the pains of old age. But there was a day I shone among the champions."
Homer, The Illiad, 23.715-719 (800 BC). King Nestor of Pylos.
;¬D
KJK
They just don't build high quality stuff any more.
I lucked out on mine. I loosened the surpentine, put a wrench on the pulley to get it moving a bit and viola. Course mine only has 43,600 miles on it, but it is an 85 LX.
"But now is the time for the younger men to lock in rough encounters, time for me to yield to the pains of old age. But there was a day I shone among the champions."
Homer, The Illiad, 23.715-719 (800 BC). King Nestor of Pylos.
Man you got that right. Good thing you get to replace it with one that is likely built in China. Now it will be good for at least another year or so.
KJK
: > *Sigh* what a doggone shame. : >
: > ;¬D : >
: > KJK : >
: >
: :
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