Changing a water pump....

[96lt1]

Hey everyone, I was gonna put this in the emergency section but this isn't my daily driver yet so I guess it can sit torn apart for a day or two.
I am working on getting a 93 mtx back on the road that I purchased in pieces. I got it running but one of the pulleys on the motor was making alot of noise. Not long after that it started puking coolant on the front of the motor right about where the water pump is. I couldn't actually see it leaking from the pump but when looking from underneath I could see it running off the crank pulley. I figured it was running underneath the front cover and that was why I couldn't see it. So I decided that the pulley noise was probably the water pump and that with the leak brought me to changing it.

I have owned 10 SHOs in my time as a SHO guy and while I have done water pumps on a few of them, I haven't really owned a running SHO since 2002. It has been long enough that I can't remember how to get the water pump off. I have pulled both idler pulleys and the top cover. I know that the cps is in the way and that you technically can't pull the middle cover without pulling the lower cover, but it seems to me that it can be done without pulling the lower cover.

I searched and searched tonite and couldn't find the technique to change just the water pump. I read about the front 60k and timing belt and such, but I couldn't find out how to just do the water pump. Isn't their a way to change it out? I am down to the two lowest bolts and it is off but they seem to be blocked by the lower cover and the cps.
Can someone please shed some light on this for me or tell me that the lower cover has to come off? I really don't wanna pull the crank pully and all that stuff if I can avoid it.
I understand that I should be doing the full 60k on the front of the motor but the truth is I am in school right now and not working and with a 20 month old and a one week old baby, money is tight and my time is better spent with my family than in the shop. Once I am done with school and pulling in an income again the car will be torn down again and done right, but bottom line is.....I need to get the water pump changed and the car back on the road. Once the snow is flying and this car is put up for the winter it will get the maintenance it deserves.

So to make a long story short, can someone PLEASE tell me what I am doing wrong to get this dog gone water pump changed??

I hope this made sense, I am half asleep trying to get this posted before I crash. Anyone who has ever had to pull 14 hour days and try and sleep with a newborn will understand.

Thanx a ton,

Sean

 

[SHOGUN88]

When I did mine I did the entire front 60k. According to my Ford service manual you will unfortunantly have to remove the bottom and middle timing covers witch involves removing the crank pulley. Unless someone else can chime in...

 

[Ocnaj]

You will be better off having to pull the lower and middle timing covers in order to get the water pump off of the block since the middle cover wraps around the inlet tube for the water pump.

The crank pulley usually isn't that hard to pull if you use the starter bump method. Unless of course you have a temperamental crank bolt...

 

[firebat45]

My first water pump replacement I managed to do without removing the lower timing cover. I did end up breaking the middle timing cover trying to flex it enough to get the pump out. I was trying to avoid taking the crank pulley off, I was still pretty new to SHOs.

In retrospect, taking the pulley off is the easiest route. Starter bump, steering wheel puller, and you've got it off in maybe 10 minutes.

I no longer have any timing covers on my SHO at all. Makes frontal engine maintenance stupidly easy compared to with the covers on.

 

[SHOmethewayhome]

My first water pump replacement I managed to do without removing the lower timing cover. I did end up breaking the middle timing cover trying to flex it enough to get the pump out. I was trying to avoid taking the crank pulley off, I was still pretty new to SHOs.

In retrospect, taking the pulley off is the easiest route. Starter bump, steering wheel puller, and you've got it off in maybe 10 minutes.

I no longer have any timing covers on my SHO at all. Makes frontal engine maintenance stupidly easy compared to with the covers on.

got a picture of this? seems to me the cover would be a good idea.

 

[sdpatt]

To prevent the waterfall of coolant from dousing the timing belt and CPS, the water pump is to be replaced only after the timing belt is removed and the CPS is either protected or moved out of the way. A leaking water pump is a good opportunity to work in a front end 60K. This will let you keep the front end maintained for another 60,000 miles. The cost of the $35 timing belt and $8 front main seal should not be a significant deterrent to ensuring the SHO will live to rev another day (and your maintenance efforts are not required in that one location).

 

[SHOtime2511]

make sure you go ahead and replace the gaskets in the water pump housing as well.

 

[itwonder]

Your choices are to either remove both the lower and middle timing covers, or to just remove the middle one and break it in the process. Then you can change the WP. It's much easier to do if the timing belt is off, so you don't buy much by trying to shortcut.

As an emergency repair, one can try to swap out the center of the pump, leaving the housing on the car. That is risky because once the center is loose, the housing is loose. If it shifts at all, the little o-ring between the housing an block will leak when you re-assemble it. Pressure test before putting everything back on to avoid disappointment.