Water pump & balancer replacement, any advice?

[Kerpal]

So I'm about to replace my water pump with a new Ford piece, and the harmonic balancer with a Professional Products one. kinda odd they went out at the same time, beats having to take everything apart twice though. I have a couple questions...

-am I likely to need new water pump bolts? can I safely reuse the stock bolts if everything comes off with no damage? they do look rusted, I suppose I'll hit them with a wire brush and penetrating oil..

-I should coat both sides of the WP gasket with a thin layer of silocone, right? which type is best to use?

-is it safe to place a 1/2 breaker bar against the water pump and gently bump the engine over to loosen the crank bolt? an article in MM&FF magazine suggested this method. I don't have acess to air tools. can I tighten the crank bolt sufficiently with out them?

-should I run a tap through everything (crank & WP bolts?)? what sizes would I need?

any other tips you guys can give me? I have never attemed either before, but I figure with some patience, a Haynes manual and Stanget the job shouldn't be too bad...

 

[cobradvm]

If the bolts come out okay you can go ahead and reuse them. The problem is if they are rusted, it's easy to break them off, and now you have a busted off bolt in the block. Mine came out okay and have had no problems reusing them.
I coated both sides of the gasket with a thin coat of silicone - I used a type that was specifically for water pumps made by permatex, but any silicone should work just fine.
Don't know about the method to get the crank bolt off - my engine was out of the car, and I used a bar with a couple of bolts in the crank shaft to hold mine against the engine stand. Did the same when I put the bolt back on - don't remember the torque setting - somewhere around the 90-100s I guess.
Always a good idea to use a tap - when you put the bolts in, use antiseize incase they need to come out again to reduce the risk of break one off in the block.
No other pearls of wisdom - should be straight forward. Make sure you are using a reverse rotation water pump

Howard

 

[BaXTeR3221]

I used an allen wrench in the bolt and a big adjustable wrench to break the crank bolts lose. Water pump is no big deal, just use silcone and pay attention to what bolts go where because they aren't all the same.

 

[HISSIN50]

I put the car in gear and ebrake it to break the crank bolt loose. I thought with the bumping the motor method, the breaker was against the ground instead of against any part of the motor.

Good luck.

 

[trents99]

I used a 2 foot cheater bar for the crank and took it off by hand. I wouldn't use the waterpump to wedge the bar since the front cover is cast and prone to crack. I used the black permatex, just a skim layer on both sides.

 

[Kerpal]

I put the car in gear and ebrake it to break the crank bolt loose. I thought with the bumping the motor method, the breaker was against the ground instead of against any part of the motor.

Good luck.

Do you mean you just put the car in gear / ebrake on so the crank doesn't turn, and then use a breaker bar on it?

That's the thing about putting the breaker bar against the water pump... seems like it could potentially crack something. Hopefully my superhuman strength will be enough to get the bolt loose...

 

[clarkjr]

Regarding the balancer... before you put the balancer on, put some anti-seize on the inside where it contacts the crank. However, do not put any on the keyway or slot - use silicone in the slot on the balancer. And, when you have the new balancer on (use a proper installation tool), make sure you put some silicone sealer around the washer and a tiny bit on the bolt head to seal it against the balancer.

 

[jrichker]

Take a cardboard box, & turn it upside down. Count the number of bolts that hold the water pump on, don’t forget to count the 4 funny looking studs too. Poke a hole in the box for each bolt/stud. Arrange the holes in a circular formation, and mark the box at the 12:00 point. When you remove a water pump bolt, put it in one of the holes in the box according to where it came out of the water pump. When you are done, all bolts will be arranged it the exact same order and position that you removed them from the water pump. That makes re-installing them easy, no wondering where does this bolt go.

A long shank tap should be used to chase the dirt & corrosion out of the original threads before you reassemble everything. Cleaning the threads will help prevent the bolts from seizing next time (yes, there will be a next time).

Use lots of antiseize on the bolts to protect them from corrosion and make them easier to remove next time.

A word about the links, if they don’t work, do a search on the part number (P/N). MSC updates their catalog regularly, and the pages may change, but the part numbers don’t. You will need the Adobe Acrobat viewer which is also a free download – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Long shank 5/16” taps

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNPDFF?PMPAGE=275 5/16” pulley tap, 6” shank P/N 04801189 price $14.26

OR second choice, will not clean all the bottom threads unless you grind the end of the tap.

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNPDFF?PMPAGE=275 extension tap, 6” reduced diameter shank P/N 04701181 $16.17

See http://www.windsorfox.com/engtbk.htm for Stainless Steel Water Pump Bolts with Custom stainless steel studs. Allow the use of factory accessory brackets without hunting for obsolete parts or using spacers.

Kit comes complete with nine polished stainless 12 point bolts, four stainless studs and nine stainless oversized washers.

Price: $65.95

 

[HISSIN50]

Do you mean you just put the car in gear / ebrake on so the crank doesn't turn, and then use a breaker bar on it?

That's the thing about putting the breaker bar against the water pump... seems like it could potentially crack something. Hopefully my superhuman strength will be enough to get the bolt loose...

Yep - sorry for having typed that so horribly. With the driveline locked, the crank bolt should break loose, rather than turning the motor over.


Good luck.

 

[Kerpal]

Thanks for the help everyone.

Any ideas where I might find a 5/16" long shank tap locally? Guess I'll start making some phone calls...

 

[Kerpal]

Well, I finished up the water pump and balancer yesterday. Both were much easier than I was expecting, luckily all the bolts came out without any trouble. The car runs a lot smoother now with the new balancer. A huge thanks to everyone that replied.

The only thing I'm wondering is, should I have put anything on the large balancer bolt, and the 4 crank pulley bolts? Loctite/antisieze? I couldn't find a definate answer, so I just put them in dry.

 

[darthcual]

Put mine in dry and no problems so far, Of course i'm a cheap skate too......

 

[marine_2003]

The wp bolts as stated earlier as long as they are ok then you can use them again. Definatley silocone both sides i put a new pump in Edelbrock hi-flow reverse rotation and didn't do both sides and am slowly leaking out the bottom, as for the balancer i am in the process of changing mine now and i put a screwdriver in the flywheel, put the car in gear, set the e-brake, and broke the bolt loose, i also went and rented a loaner balancer puller from advance auto parts, so i wouldnt damage anything trying to beat the balancer off, worked great, cant finish because of the rain.

 

[cobradvm]

Ideally it is good to put antiseize on the balancer bolt, but if you didn't, I wouldn't bother pulling it off just to do that! I didn't bother with the crank pulley bolts.

 

[Kerpal]

Cool, if it's no big deal I'll just leave it alone I suppose.

My WP bolts were a little grungy but came out without a fight. I cleaned them up with a wire brush and put them back in with lots of antiseize, no problems.

I was a little worried about the WP gasket, since I was told black RTV is the best to use and when I opened up the tube I realized the stuff I bought was brownish... I had bought it a long time ago and assumed it was the black stuff... but so far so good.

I used Hissin's 5th gear/ebrake method and the balancer bolt came out with barely a tug on the 2" breaker bar... then I used a rental puller from Autozone. I got the new balancer on by tapping it with a 2x4" and a hammer until I could thread the bolt in, and then just carefully tightening the bolt. Some people reccomend an installer tool, but my local Mustang shop said it wasn't really necessary. I rented one anyway, but couldn't figure out how to use the damn thing, so out came the barbarian tools.

 

[trents99]

Sounds like you did fine. I used a block of wood too and it works out fine. I always use blue thread locker on the crank pulley because I wad one walk off on me once so it's just piece of mind for me.