Water pump shagged, any tips?

[Morton]

Damn, I was lucky to make it home tonight. My belt's been squeaking for the last two weeks, and recently a strange hollow noise has been plaguing my car. Never was able to identify either.

Then, tonight, I hear this god awful squeaking - a sound from hell. Pull over, take a look:

One band of the belt is shredded, and the car's leaking coolant. Quick inspection reveals a crapped water pump pulley.

Long story short, I limp home (re-adjusting the belt around half a dozen times) and just as I back up the driveway, I hear a deathly rattle and other wonderful sounds. Pop the bonnet - hello face-full-of-steam! Pulley completely ****s itself JUST as I get home, and coolant starts pissing out. What a mess it's made of my beautiful, clean engine bay!!! I'm so sad >.<


Obviously I have to change the water pump tomorrow... has anybody done this before? I'm guessing I remove the fan shroud, then get in there and unbolt the pump, replacing the new one with a gasket, or gasket glue.

Any tips from anyone who's done this before? Anything to make it easier, or anything to watch out for?

Cheers in advance I'm off to bed.

Laters!

[crazyspoon05]

Water pump is pretty easy, you shouldn't have to remove the fan shroud (at least I didn't with my series 1 VN)

Just bear in mind some of the small bolts on the pump are metric and some are imperial (10mm and 3/8 IIRC) and make sure the old gasket is totally removed

You may need to spray some of the bolts before you crack them as well as the combination of water and loctite on my old pump made a couple of them difficult to crack

[Pub247]

No need to remove fan. Pretty easy job 20 mins half an hour. Drain your radiator (if there's anythings left in it) Then the 4 bolts on the WP pulley crack those before you take the belt off. Use some wd40 or crc on the bolts to loosen them up. unbolt all the WP bolts (take note as some are longer and shorter) Remove the old pump i used a mallet to give it one good hit to knock it off as it can be stuck on. Now the hard part (most time consuming) Clean the timing cover suface of all the old gasket using a scraper and maybe some fine-ish sandpaper. Now i use loctite no.3 (aviation sealant) for most of my gaskets and never had a problem apply it to gasket surfaces whack on the gasket and new WP do it all up. When tightening the pulley again put the belt on and get someone to apply pressure so it doesnt spin when you tighten them.

[Morton]

Cheers for the ideas, guys The fun begins in an hour!

[greenfoam]

Good luck man, its a really easy job though so you wont need much luck

[J_D]

I took the fan off mine to make it easier (you can stand in the engine bay then). If you have ever done a water pump on any other car you will be able to do a Commodore one. They are a piece of piss and the easiest water pump ive ever changed.

[Morton]

Not wrong - they're pretty easy Easier than I expected.

thanks for the heads-up on the imperial bolt size on the pump crazyspoon I bought a 3/8 socket just in case, and bingo - just what I needed Champion.

I may clean up those bolts before I put them back in... they're just a little rusty

I tell you what, though - that bearing really shagged itself. The pump wheel has had so much play, it's taken chunks out of the timing case cover. Holy Hell!!! Check the pics.

[HoZy]

I did mine the other day.. Bearing seized.. Wasnt nice having a smoking fanbelt & warm car...

Just pic of old pump & new pump.

Cheers
MaT

[Morton]

Aaaah I see

You were talking to me earlier about how your new pump was a high volume pump, or some sort. I see what you mean now - your new style of pump is identical to my factory pump, which is in turn the same as the new pump I purchased today. I'm guessing the old thing you've got there on the left is an exclusively factory VN pump?

[Morton]

I turned this experience into a rather long-winded tutorial in the how-to section Hopefully this will help many-a-person in the future!

Changing water pump (VN/VP/VR)

[HoZy]

Umm dunno... the old one was the ecotec pump...

[Morton]

Ahhh... jee, that's pretty sucky for a standard ecotech pump. I'm shocked!

[HoZy]

Dude the pump u took off is a replacement already...

I just took my old stock vn pump s1 off, same as the ecotec pump..

Cheers
MaT

[Morton]

Ahh yes, that's a more plausable theory ^^