I have some fluid leaking from the back side of my water pump. Is it neccessary for me to get a new water pump or could it just be the seal on the back of it? Also is it a difficult thing to fix or can a novice do it correctly. If i can do it, any help you guys could give me would be great as i'm not much of a mechanic. Thanks
Not hard to do, but you'll have to drain and store/dispose of the coolant. Basically: 1) Drain Radiator 2) Remove fan & Shroud 3) Loosen / remove belts 4) unbolt & remove water pump 5) Inspect to see if shaft wiggles- if not, you might just have a leaky gasket & put it back together. If it does wiggle (my bet), clean the mating surfaces (carefully! It's soft metal), replace water pump w/ new gasket. 6) Put it all back together. Should take an hour or two as long as you have somewhere to put the coolant. -Bob Cunningham bobc@gnttype.org
If you have to go through all of that work my opinion is to just put a new water pump in. It might just save you a headache or two.
Grab a hold of the fan and see if you can make the pulley wiggle. If you can the bearing is starting to go and that slowly wipes the shaft seal. When that happens, coolant comes out of the weep hole under the shaft housing of the pump. If you are going to remove it, replace it. The biggest headache with waterpumps is the small bolts at the top. If anti-seize wasn't used on them, you might break the heads of the bolts off trying to get them out. use alot of liquid wrench or PB blaster on them and go easy. Other than that, it's a walk in the park.
Be careful if you take the water pump bolts out. If they have corroded, don't jerk on your ratchet to remove them; they may break (which stinks). I recommend a steady even pressure from a breaker bar, then after the bolts turns switch to the ratchet.
Good afternoon: One other source of coolant leakage could be a corroded timing cover. Which, of course requires water pump removal as well. Spray some WD40 on the bolts, both back and front and let it soak in for a bit before loosening. This will reduce the chance of breaking one. Good Luck JA
it's pretty easy, I can do mine in 15 minutes... but I have some practice... Just get a new/remanufactured pump, I think autozone has em for around $20... I call that cheap insurance... I've found the gasket shilac stuff works best to seal the gaskets, it's in a brown bottle, and has either a lion or an indian on the front, it has a brush attached to the cap, and it just brushes onto the gasket.... Remember not to overtighten the belts when you reinstall them, and check that the pulleys still line up with each other. Either case will kill the bearings quick. good luck
Thanks a lot guys. Went to autozone today and they priced a pump at $81 something so i decided to check around a bit more, sounded a little high to me. O'Reilly had one for 29 so i went that route. Guess I'll get to work now, sounds like the hardest part is trying not to break the bolts. Thanks again.
plese do let us know how it goes. i broke about 4 bolts when i did mine last. too bad i didnt know anything about this board when i did it! good luck!
If you think the bolts feel like they are going to break, try this idea that was taught to my.Take a small propane type torch (that has the detachable tip)and hold the flame on the housing where the bolt goes through.Don't use excessive heat though. The heat will free up the antifreeze and rust enough to loosen the bolt. Since the housing and the pump are aluminum they get really funky when the bolt is in them for awhile.SPRAY THEM REAL GOOD WITH PENETRANT TOO BEFORE TRYING TO REMOVE THEM.If you do break the bolts use the heat and vice grips to remove them.Make sure you coat the bolts with antisieze before reinstalling. PAT:TU:
back side??? Make sure its not the thermostat housing leaking, thats very common! Put some cardboard in front of the radiator so you don't hit some fins while you are working.... - Bill
$81?????? :spank: :spank: :spank: THe most I ever paid was about $23. I have a reman pump for a 350..do you need it?
I think I've changed about 10 of these and can do them in record time - mostly because I used to buy the cheap ones. You get what you pay for on these things, in my opinion. Going on 7 years on my last $75 lifetime warantee pump - not a reman pump. I think it's actually faster and easier to just pull the radiator - this way you don't have to scrape your knuckles reaching around trying to get all those fan bolts. When you do this job be absolutely sure that all pulleys are in alignment or the new pump might not last long.
