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After many weeks of terrible noise from the water pump in my 1968 Mustang, I finally bought a new pump. I originally requested a half day from work to install the pump, but as these things go, it took me six hours to swap the old for the new.
First problem was the hoses. I got the alternator and power steering pump and their brackets removed without incident, but I could not get the heater hose or lower radiator hose off the old pump. They were really stuck on there. After a bit, I poured some hot water and Dawn dish soap, and with a good amount of twisting, those hose were off. The above took 3 hours.
Next, I scraped and cleaned the contact areas on the block so the new pump wouldn’t leak. I put a bead of Blue RTV on the gasket, put the gasket on the pump, then another bead of Blue RTV. Lined the pump up and started bolting it down. I reattached the brackets for the alternator and power steering pump, and tightened those bolts, too. Then it was time for the belts. First the alternator, then the power steering, and tightened them up. Things we going smoothly on reassembly, which only took about an hour.
Then came the fan and those stupid fan bolts. There is only a little more than an inch (maybe an inch and a half) between the radiator and the fan. Four long bolts hold the fan and it’s spacer to the water pump. I was able to easily reattach the fan, but couldn’t finger tighten the bolts flush. I had about three-eighths of an inch worth of bolt on all four to tighten. I have three different sized socket wrenches, all of which are too big to fit between the radiator and fan bolts. So, using a box wrench, I tightened all four bolts one sixteenth of a turn at a time. My hands, arms, neck, shoulders, and legs were pretty sore by the time I finshed with that goddamned fan! Tightening the fan bolts and refilling the system with coolant took another 2 hours.
The big test came when I fired up the car. It sounded so quiet. No more groaning and grinding water pump. I took the car for a spin, and showed up at work with only 20 minutes left in the work day. Oh well. At least the "bomba de agua" is fixed.
Here’s some more pictures of the mess that is the 302 engine of my Mustang.:
pic1 | pic2 | pic3 | pic4
Good god man. That’s a project and a half!
Yeah… but a project I needed to do. That’s why I like my old beater car. If it needs repair, I can do it myself (as long as the repair doesn’t involve the rear end, the tranny, or the inner workings of the engine). I could probably do those, too, with enough time, a garage to work on it, and another car to drive.
Dude, my water pump took a shit last week when I was in Oregon. Totally sucked I just wanted to get home! I got bailed out by a guy at Auto Zone and he fixed it for 40$. What a fucked up trip!
GG Jim, changing the water pump on my VW was 4 bolts on the pump assembly and having to unbolt the alternator (2 more). then 6 bolts to sperate the pump from the housing.
RTV is the poop!
Call me back Jimzor!