First big problem..the water pump

[MDewell]

I noticed this morning a puddle of water under the X...so I got to lookin at it this afternoon and noticed that the water pump is leakin underneath. Further examination showed me that there's antifreeze comin out of the little pin-like hole underneath the pulley....

So...I called and got a price on a water pump (Oreilly's, 49.99 w/lifetime warranty)

However, anything imparticular I should know about it? I read that sometimes the water pump bolts break off, but I'm not to worried about that. I also read on here (loads of info, thanks!) that the Auto-zone fan pulley kit that you can rent is absolute junk and I shouldn't go there...so I'll be checkin around on that.

Anything else I should be pre-warned about? I've done water pumps on old chevy's before, but never a 90's generation ford...and just like the boyscouts, I wanna be prepared..LOL

 

[BP_93explorer]

I did mine a few weeks ago and didn't have much of a problem. I'm not that mechanical either. I used the AutoZone kit and it worked OK. Kinda difficult to get it on but once I figured it out it was fine. The biggest problem I had (other than the oil all over the place making things slick and hard to see) was the hose on the passenger side of the pump was melted onto the pump. Had no choice but to cut it off. No problem with the bolts. I took the radiator out to give more room. In the process I noticed the fan was cracked pretty badly so I had to replace that.

 

[MDewell]

Called a buddy of mine up and we both agreed to just yank the radiator out and do it that way...he wants to call around first about the puller before we go to autozone..seems he hasn't had much luck with it either...and he's an "X" owner too.

 

[yellowcat]

let me tell you my water pump story

Well first off let me say at least replace the hoses and thero. heater hoses as well, and get some radator grease on the new hoses. I would replace the belt and check pulleys and tensioners. the rad is easy to remove.
here is my story, went to auto zone, no luck i think the bolt was like twenty eight mm. there kit was for some truck in another planet. That fan clutch was really really tight. And it is right hand thread. Righty tighty, lefty loosy.
I ended up take the water pump clutch and fan off in one peice. I think their was 12 bolts holding it on. No problem. As you loosen one of the bottom bolts, it will pin the rachet , but I got lucky,and it was the last bolt so the pump just came off.
That fan was , oh man, what a pita. post back if you can not get that fan off.

 

[Tony H]

If you've done a Chevy... you will have no surprises. Very typical.

The hardware is very small in size so don't muscle them. If they don't let go easily, try to actually tighten them a bit.