water pump gasket

[BlackVert]

i need to replace my water pump gasket

do i need to take off the water pump pulley to get to the bolts for the water pump?

what about the crank pulley?

how about taking out the radiator ... do i need to do that?

or can i just take the fan out?

i'm thinking i should just take it to a shop and let them do it ... :ugh:

 

[94-302-vert]

Chris it has been a while since I did mine but I know I left the radiator in and took out the fan. Had to remove the WP pulley but I don't think I removed the harmonic balancer, maybe jsut the crank pulley... It is a couple hours but not a hard couple hours to do it...

 

[Venom351R]

Pick up one of those chiltons or Haynes repair maunals

 

[FlyBy763]

You have to take the water pump pulley off...the radiator and fan can stay put.

 

[j_lutter31]

I had to replace my water pump a couple months ago. It was pretty easy and straight forward. I did buy the Repair book from advance auto parts so that helped a little bit. But heres what I did for the most part.

1. Take off the black trim panel above the radiator, and then remove the overflow tank and the fan. Not tough at all, I would think that taking a pulley off would be much harder.

2. From there you should be able to access all of the bolts. You can remove the serpentine pretty easily with the belt tensioner, just put a wrench on the tensioner and rotate it to where it gives you enough leeway to take the belt off. It should come off pretty easy. I found a old piece of card board and stuck the bolts through it in the same pattern as they go in to the block (to remember where each one goes). Good luck with it.

 

[1TallMF]

I replaced my WP last fall, not hard to do. I left the fan and rad in place, just removed the pulley to get at the bolts. Its easy, just leave the belt on so you can crack the 4 bolts loose without it turning. Once the bolts are off you can take the belt off. The pulley is sort of a press-fit, so I pryed it lightly using a long screwdriver while turning so it came-off evenly, just takes a couple minutes. Careful not to bend the pulley.

By far the worst part is taking-off the old heater and bypass hoses... mine were practically baked-on after 14 years and were in bad shape anyways, so I bought new ones.

Make damn sure the surface of the timing cover and pump are uber-clean when you go to put the new gasket on. I had a tiny leak on the driver's side because I think I missed a spot, was a PITA to fix and seal properly.

 

[BlackVert]

thanks for the advice. after posting this, i saw another possible cause for the problem. i have march brackets, and one of the bolts is either running out of thread or is bottoming out, so the gasket is not being fully pressed against the backing plate and the spacer is loose.

see this for details ...

http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=753860

i'm gonna address that before i move forward with the gasket thing. with any luck, i won't have to replace the gasket after all.

 

[divit250r]

What gasket are you guys using? Last year when I tore mine apart to replace the gaskets and seals, I couldn't get a $%*@#$%*#$ water pump to plate gasket that matched to save my arse... I ended up using black RTV instead. The gaskets in the Trick Flow kit were wrong, the gaskets from Autozone were wrong, and the gaskets I thought might work (for a T-Bird or Cougar with the 5.0) were non-stocked, according to all the Felpro books and the stores.

Scott

 

[BlackVert]

well, at lunch today, i took out the fan and the overflow tank and was able to get to the bolt. it came out without incident and i just so happened to have a washer that was EXACTLY the right size so i slipped it on and tightened it all back up. the spacer is now really tight and the bolt has not quite bottomed out.

also, the alignment of the alternator did not change and there is no belt problem.

so far so good ... i haven't seen any dripping yet, and there is no puddle under the car

i may have just saved myself about $250

 

[FlyBy763]

What gasket are you guys using? Last year when I tore mine apart to replace the gaskets and seals, I couldn't get a $%*@#$%*#$ water pump to plate gasket that matched to save my arse... I ended up using black RTV instead. The gaskets in the Trick Flow kit were wrong, the gaskets from Autozone were wrong, and the gaskets I thought might work (for a T-Bird or Cougar with the 5.0) were non-stocked, according to all the Felpro books and the stores.

Scott

Some parts stores dont stock our WP gasket because it is different than just about every other 5.0 WP gasket. The one we need is the one that would have to be ordered by parts stores. Thats the way mine is anyway...