water pump replacement

I recently replaced my water pump; the old one was leaking a little.

Mostly, the job went OK, just taking me some time, since I'm not really a mechanic.

The part that caused me to profess a few cuss words was reinstalling the fan blade. You have to line up the four bolt holes in the water pump, pulley, and the fan blade. This is not an easy task. In addition, you do not have a lot of room because of the plastic shroud-it appeared that you had to have the shroud on while attaching the blade. I couldn't see how you could install fan blade first, then shroud. I did finally get the fan installed, but it took 1-2 hours just for this one part.

My question then, is there an easier way to re-attach the fan blade short of removing the radiator?

1982 F100 302 V8, 136000 miles AC, PB, PS, Auto
Reply to
stevie
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Put studs in place of the bolts,put the fan on the studs and turn on the nuts.Makes it easier to line up and saves time.Hope this helps.Bobby

Reply to
bobby swift

Removing the radiator is easy, and is the right way to do it, time wise.

Spdloader

Reply to
Spdloader

Pulling the radiator isn't a big job, but most newer vehicles (i.e early 90's and on) have a split shroud so you can pull the top half to get at bolts like that.

Reply to
invalid unparseable

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:47:34 -0600, stevie rearranged some electrons to form:

Removing the radiator is always a good idea when working near it... you don't want to mangle it with a slip of a wrench. And it's pretty easy to do (you already drained the coolant to replace the water pump)

Reply to
David M

Mostly, the job went OK, just taking me some time, since I'm not really a mechanic.

The part that caused me to profess a few cuss words was reinstalling the fan blade. You have to line up the four bolt holes in the water pump, pulley, and the fan blade. This is not an easy task. In addition, you do not have a lot of room because of the plastic shroud-it appeared that you had to have the shroud on while attaching the blade. I couldn't see how you could install fan blade first, then shroud. I did finally get the fan installed, but it took 1-2 hours just for this one part.

My question then, is there an easier way to re-attach the fan blade short of removing the radiator?

1982 F100 302 V8, 136000 miles AC, PB, PS, Auto
Reply to
stevie

I have to disagree with everyone that posted to say removing the radiator was easy. Most of the time, they'll have a tranny cooler inside them. In my opinion, that just ruins all the fun. Sometimes you get the lines apart and back together with no problems, but you can't be sure of that.

I have had the experience that the hoses were hard as heck to get to, also.

Reply to
Joe

There are lots of tricks to easy removal of a radiator, like a little "heat" on the trans fittings and they'll break loose, and having the proper tools to do the job is a big help.

On the other hand, there is always the exception, but the exception is not the rule.

Spdloader

Reply to
Spdloader

If it's got a 2 piece shroud on it thats the way to go.My truck has a 1 piece on it but someone cut the bottom half off. Bobby

Reply to
bobby swift

C'mon guys. This is an easy one. Done it dozens of times. Remove the bolts holding the shroud in place, move it back toward the engine as far as possible, might require a bungee cord or two to hold it back. These fans (with heat-activated clutch) usually have slots instead of simple mounting holes. Start the bottom bolt a turn or so in the water pump flange, slide one slot over this and push the pump into place over the center pin on the water pump flange. Start the remaining bolts without tightening any of them, which can be a little tricky, but is easily accomplished. Using an open end wrench tighten all the water pump flange bolts and then bolt the fan shroud in place. Works every time for me. The stud process works also but make sure the stud will turn by hand to remove it once you have a bolt started. Good luck

Reply to
Ernie Sparks

It looks like I will be doing the job again.

Got everything back together but the @/?!!@ thing leaks. I'm fairly certain it isn't the water pump (it was new). I probably either 1) did not properly seat the new gasket or 2) did not get all of the old gasket off before installing the pump. I suspect the latter, although I thought I cleaned it good. I checked hoses, etc., and they look OK, no apparent leaks. The water is leaking toward the rear of the pump, near where the heater hose connects. Also, I used sealant on new gasket.

So I guess I will be pulling it off & re-installing. Any advice would be welcome.

Mostly, the job went OK, just taking me some time, since I'm not really a mechanic.

The part that caused me to profess a few cuss words was reinstalling the fan blade. You have to line up the four bolt holes in the water pump, pulley, and the fan blade. This is not an easy task. In addition, you do not have a lot of room because of the plastic shroud-it appeared that you had to have the shroud on while attaching the blade. I couldn't see how you could install fan blade first, then shroud. I did finally get the fan installed, but it took 1-2 hours just for this one part.

My question then, is there an easier way to re-attach the fan blade short of removing the radiator?

1982 F100 302 V8, 136000 miles AC, PB, PS, Auto
Reply to
stevie

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