Unfortunately, I did not notice this post before I took on this project myself. I changed the water pump and noticed some interesting differences between how we did it so I figured I would post the method I used for anyone looking for an alternate method.
So, here's how I did it without any special tools and getting it done as cheaply as possible
Removal:
(Note: did not drain because my pump completely died, all water was already drained with the exception of a small amount)
1) removed air intake tube
2) broke loose bolt on fan, using channel locks or a vice grips forget which was successful i tried both (i didn't bugger up the bolt in the process for anyone who may be concerned)
3) hand spun fan until off completely. the nut will not spin as fast as the fan but this is the easiest way to remove the fan
4) removed fan shroud bolts (only 2 bolts up top)
5) removed both fan and shroud from front of vehicle, freeing up tons of room for this project (what I enjoyed most)
6) while the belt was still on (important, otherwise it will be a pain) broke bolts on front of water pump pulley loose but did not remove
7) used breaker bar and 5/8" socket (it might really be metric 15mm according to someone else, but i used a 5/8" socket) to loosen belt tensioner and took serpentine belt off. breaker bar not necessary, but worth their weight in gold so if you don't have one might be time to break down and get one
8) inspected serpentine belt, hold it with the lines facing you and bend it into a fairly tight "U" shape pointing towards you if you see cracks that are closer than 1 inch apart, replace -- i had none since i recently replaced my serpentine belt after my compressor locked up and burn up my belt
8) finished removing the pulley from the front of the water pump, placed bolts with pulley
9) removed idler pulley (directly to the left of the water pump, spins easily with your hand)
10) removed heater and radiator hoses from water pump
11) got new water pump, placed it carefully on top of engine over a rag to use as a reference for where the bolts are
12) removed each 12 bolts from the water pump. each bolt i removed i put in the respective hole in the new pump in order to both not lose track of the bolts and know which i had completed and which i lacked. i tried to do the difficult ones first then do the easy ones last (difficult ones are on the bottom and left side of pump)
13) removed water pump (believe it held on with no bolts simply by the gasket etc) -- it was very easy, would have liked to had someone holding it while i removed the last bolt
Installation:
1) scraped old gasket material off of the front of the engine with putty knife. tried to be real easy and not chip or scratch my engine block at all, but not easy with a putty knife. would have preferred something like a gasket removal rotary tool or something like that
2) placed old water pump on top of car and transferred bolts to it so that i could see which i've put in where i put it, etc.
honestly, i don't recommend this step at all!
3) i used grease from where i replaced my front bearings to get gasket 'moist' and sticking to the water pump (made sure not to put on too thick and made sure no excess got inside area where coolant would be)
4) put 2 top bolts in easy to screw in places and carefully lowered the new water pump to the front of the engine
5) hand-tightened both bolts to the best of my ability, to align and position the pump well -- wasn't easy, dropped the bolts a few times etc. i may have even gotten one in and let it hang by 1 bolt while i grabbed another bolt to put in
6) immediately put a bolt on the bottom and tightened enough to have a good hold.
7) continued putting each bolt in one by one tightening them all so that there was no space between the pump and the head of the bolts, but did not fully tighten
8) tightened bolts fully somewhat in a cross pattern (doesn't need much, tiny bolts and remember that's your engine if you break one off in there so don't overtighten)
9) affixed both hoses to the new pump
10) replaced idler pulley and tightened
this is where it gets interesting...
11) hand-tightened pulley onto front of water pump, had to use a wrench or something to get it tight enough that it wasn't wobbly, but no need to fully tighten just yet
12) used breaker bar and 5/8" socket to put belt back on (has diagram on front of frame that shows routing). again, breaker bar not necessary, but worth their weight in gold so if you don't have one might be time to break down and get one -- if you are using a standard wrench, you may want to
13) fully tightened all bolts on front of water pump
14) removed/loosened belt again (i know, weird, but it made it much easier to ensure a proper tightening of nuts on the front of the water pump)
15) now, with the serpentine belt OFF (but still routed properly, important!), i lowered the fan and shroud together down with a partner. i had the partner hold the fan in place, putting the nut onto the front of the water pump. while maintaining that position i spun the front of the water pump until the thread caught. once it caught, i tried to continue spinning as much as i thought i could to ensure there was a good catch with no cross threading that wouldn't fall off in the next part
16) used breaker bar to put belt back into position and routed properly.
17) spun fan with hand to get even better on the front, but complete tightening not necessary just make sure it's on there "real good"
18) replaced fan shroud bolts
19) replaced air intake tube
20) started engine briefly (yes, without coolant). the idea here is to start it, then turn the car right back off. what this does is tighten that blasted bolt on the front of the fan so that you don't have to break your knuckles or purchase special tools to do it.
21) had 1 gallon of pure anti-freeze, not mixed. grabbed a 1gal pitcher from inside filled it with water (i used filtered water to avoid calcium deposits in the engine, but i don't suppose that's necessary)
22) filled the radiator with 1/2gal of the water
23) filled the radiator with 1/2gal of pure antifreeze
24) filled remainder of antifreeze bottle with the remainder of the water (making it 1 gallon total)
25) topped off radiator with antifreeze
26) took exactly my 2 gallons, filled antifreeze jug with water, filled overflow with water
27) ran vehicle, letting it pull in coolant from the overflow as needed and left heater running to ensure all components using coolant were being circulated
28) after letting cool, checked levels, all good -- took on a quick test drive when i came back after cooling off looks like radiator was at the proper level and it was able to pull in all the extra coolant it needed from the overflow, no "burping" required
this was done by a complete newb, and i'm sure i did things i shouldn't have, but i hope in some way this helps someone do the job easier.