About a week ago my water pump started weeping coolant out on my truck. Yesterday (Saturday) I decide to change it. Truck has 71,000 miles on it.

1st, I have a look at the chiltons manual, looks easy enough, it says I need a fan clutch kit, no problem.

Go to Pep Boys, the only place with a pump in stock. Pick up the pump, uper and lower radiator hoses, 5 year coolant, water wetter, new belt, etc. Bill comes to $200. They do not have the thermostat or the tool I need.

Next I head to the dealer and pick up the thermostat and gasket for another $25. (Just for kicks and grins I price the dealer pump, $160 and they didn't even have it in stock.)

Then I head to NAPA and pay $60 for this fan clutch tool. Looks like a piece of crap, but I have no choice.

Get home, read the chiltons manual, and it tells me the fan clutch is reverse thread. 2 frustrating hours later, I get my wife to help hold the 4 foot long breaker bars I am trying to use to break this thing loose. Since the fan clutch tool is such a POS and is very thin, we strip out the fan nut pretty quickly. We then switch to the craftsman adjustable wrench. We end up breaking it in two places (I have never broke one of these before). Head to the local store since sears isn't too close, pick ope up. Bring it home and it won't open up big enough. Argh. So I drive down to Sears and pick up a replacement wrench. Get back to the house, still no dice (won't come loose). Finally I head upstairs and start searching here, sure enough, the Chiltons manual is WRONG. After another 30 minutes I had the fan clutch off. Turning it the right direction certainly does help removal....

It took a total of an hour start to finish after that. The rest of the job was pretty easy. The truck tests OK idling, no leaks, so I call it "done" and clean up and head out for dinner.

On the way to dinner the truck makes a mean vibration over 3000 RPM or so. Do some checking and the fan is wobbling quite a bit. Great!

So today I start removing parts, first the fan, then the belts, etc. Finally I get down to the water pump, and sure enough the shaft on the brand new water pump is bent, and now I have to do the entire job over again, and go get another one. Of course Pep Boys only stocks one pump which I bought, so I have to drive 30 minutes past the 30 minutes away Pep Boys in order to get one.

I'm still not done and this has been the most frustrating experience. Good news I guess is since all of the parts were just off, it only took me about 20 minutes to get the pump out, and I figure 30-35 to get everything back together. It's a shame to waste 2 gallons of brand new coolant, and all of the mess it makes getting it out.

I didn't have a point to this post really, I'm just frustrated with this whole damn thing right now. Monday morning Chiltons is going to get an ear full from me.

 

Sorry to hear of your troubles. My prayers are with you. Keep reminding yourself how smart you were to buy the parts at Pep Boys and not at the dealer and if that doesn't help. Call the dealer and ask him what he wants for his staff to change a water pump. Take the wife out for a very nice time on the difference in the money you saved.

Hunt4fun

 

I finished it. Just got back from a test drive. Everything is OK now. I know I still saved a bundle, though! No telling what the dealer would charge for that. It was easy the second time around.

 

Too bad you didn't take pictures. I suspect that now you are a certified water pump expert.

I'm glad that you got it resolved.

 

jayntguru

Had almost the same experience. Went to install underdrive pulleys, and thought I was pretty smart -- reading Chilton and knowing (according to them) that fan had reverse threads. Couldn't believe that I couldn't get the fool fan off.

Didn't break the metric adjustablewrench
before I thought that maybe Chilton was wrong.
You know, the fan would have really come off easily if I hadn't spent so much time tightening it first.

 

OUch!!!

(Nice final job -- and thanks for the infopost -- they Are appreciated!)

 

One lesson I learned from my Dad - "Get the new pump and try a bolt in it first to determine if its right or left hand threads. Then take the old pump off."

 

Vehicle: 97 F150 4.6L with 160K
Hopefully somebody can answer this fairly quickly. I'm in the process of changing out my fan clutch and debating if I should go ahead and install the new water pump too. I'm just afraid to death that one the steel water pump bolts might break off in the alum, engine. What's the success rate of changing these things out? Anybody snapped a bolt off? If so which one and how did you fix it?

 

I wouldn't replace a working part. I know the fan clutch maker states the water pump bearing have probably failed it their clutch did but that is horse crap.

Water pumps let you know when they need replaced by leaking. It don't leak I wouldn't replace it.

IMHO

tom

 

I've changed plenty. Haven't had a bolt break so far. I always use moderate pressure and try not to force things. If one is really tight I normally use a penetrating oil and let it sit a minute or two. I had over 220K Mi and had no problems w/ waterpump. ( kept to cooling system seviced) But it does make good sense to do it while you are there. Like tkarter said the WP people say that a bad clutch puts pressure on the bearings.

 

Mine were easy. Especially the second time.

Having done this before though, I can probably swap the whole thing start to finish in an hour. I wouldn't bother replacing the pump unless it really was broken.

 

Well, job's done so far so good. No leaks, no air pockets, and best of all no broken bolts. With them only being torqued to 25 ft lbs they weren't that bad. Some popped pretty good but after that it wasn't so bad. WP had a small amount of play but still was very useable, might have lasted another 50K. I could have stopped with the fan clutch but I was already in there and already bought the pump. With the belt off, I hand turned the pullies and the two worst are the tensioner and ALT. No roughness in the tensoiner but it spins very very freely. The ALT does have play and an audible whine.
It did take me most of the day but that's with 1000 interuptions, hunting down tools, and taking breaks. I did water pump, fan clutch, both radiator hoses with new clamps, new t-stat, new belt, and coolant. I know my chest will be sore for 3 days after laying across the radiator all day.
I have to admit I take care of my truck but I have neglected the coolant system. Mainly because I was afraid of creating air pockets but after today I know that was stupid. I found quite a bit of grime and corrosion. I wouldn't be surpised to find a leaky heater core next. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to have it power flushed sometime soon.

Sorry for long post, it's been a while and I've missed this place.

 

I had the same problem with the fan this past weekend. I was intent on installing the Troyer elecritc fans and had to put up a nearly losing battle with that damn "reverse thread" fan. After more time than I care to admit...I find out that it's a normal thread and it comes off quite quickly. Fan installation complete...runs like a charm.

Heater core is another story. Luckily, I have an aquaintance who is a Ford mechanic. He gave me a copy of the shop instructions for a complete swap of a heater core. They were the best step-by-step directions I could have had. Compared to the Haynes or Chilton manual which was woefully incomplete and lacking in detail. I did the heater core swap in a couple of days, taking alot of time and many, many breaks. Well worth doing it myself since the dealer or any other shop would have charged an arm and a leg (or some other body part I care not to lose).

Good luck with that heater core (if you need help...let me know. I may still have those directions)

 

I bought a ford maintenance DVD from a friend who works at a ford dealer. It has all Ford vehicles up to 2001 or something crazy like that. It is the best $20 I ever spent on my truck. I don't think they are supposed to sell these, so you may havbe to get lucky, but if you do, they are awesome, it makes the Haynes book look like, well, a Haynes book. (Unhook battery, remove water pump, installation is the reverse of removal.)

It saved my butt just the other day when I was replacing the pass side power window motor. Hard to believe that factory calls for drilling big holes in the door panel to get to the bolts, but it does. Never would have known this without that factory DVD.

 

My haynes book states that some fan clutch nuts are left hand
thread. and this is stated on the fan belt decal.
does any one have this on thier decal?