I almost have the water pump off my 1995 dodge caravan 3.0. I have one more "lil" problem. I had my clymers/haynes manual at the ready and dived in to the job(timing belt and water pump replacement) I'm down to the last bolt on the water pump. The top one. There is a bracket that runs thru the middle of the bolt not allowing you to get a wrench on it. I looked at the picture in the manual and sure enough it shows it . My problem is : .......to get that bracket off to access the bolt I have to remove the alternator mount and to to that I have to pull the cam sprocket (aaargh). The manifold/plenum/valley cover will not allow me to back out the bolts to get the bracket off. The bolt hits the bottom of the plenum b4 it is outta the bracket. The only way now is to extract the bracket and that means the alternator bracket has to come off!!![/align]No where in the manual does it say that I need to do that. it doesn't mention the bracket. it just says unscrew the bolts and the water pump falls into your lil sweet hand!!![/align]Am I screwed up? or is the manual just woefully incomplete. I have read where changing the water pump on the 3.0 wasn't a big deal. I have not found that to be the case !!!!!! HELP[/align]Thanks [/align]Joe[/align]

 

i have found that removing the rear cam pulley provides access to a bolt that will let you get the bracket out of the way

 

Removing that cam pulley doesn't do anything for my bracket that is in the way.

I have a another dodge 3.0. The original post was from 2007 I sold the car "as is" before I would take the "top" of the motor off to get at the last water pump bolt out.

Now it is 4 years later and I HAVE THE SAME FREAKING PROBLEM AND NO WRITE UP ON TAKING THE WATER PUMP OFF A 3.0 SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT DIFFICULTY GETTING THE TOP WATER PUMP BOLT OUT. It can't be that those folks that wrote up those instructions had NEVER taken one off them selves could it??? I am stumped and with the ease that everyone says the water pump comes off I HAVE TO BE OVER LOOKING SOMETHING .....help!!!!!!!!

Thanks

Joe
Riverside, Ca

 

Here's two pics of the bolt I CANNOT extract

 

would a crow foot wrench fit over the top, would be small turns at a time

 

That little foot was a great idea! I looked at it closer and I don't think that I could back the bolt all the way out if I could get on it with that wrench.

I'm going to grind the head off the middle bolt. The first bolt on the right side is out. If I loosen the left side and cut off the middle I should be able to swing that bracket out of the way.

I'm trying to adapt a 5 inch wheel on a 3 inch grinder to get in there to do the deed. my big grinder hits the plenum before it gets to the bolt and the little grinder gets close but the blade is to short, so once again, I have to clouge something together to make it work.

I know it isn't this difficult because some one would have written it up before, I'm going to hate myself when the right answer appears ARRRRGH

Joe the "Grinder"

 

I ground the head off the middle bolt and swung the bracket out for access. Please tell me the right way to do this, It cannot be this &^%$ UP!

With the 5 inch wheel on the 3 inch grinder I didn't have much torque on the cutting edge and I almost smoked my compressor trying to keep up. I waited for the compressor to catch up and it took almost 1/2 an hour to grind off the bolt.

But again, if this was the procedure to get a water pump off a 95 Caravan, surely some one would have written it up and not told you "just take out the bolts and the pump will fall into your hands". I'm missing something obvious and it cost me 4-6 hours screwing around with this stumbling block.

I'll have my grinder ready for the next one I encounter.

ARROW POINTS TO THE BOLT I WAS TRYING TO EXTRACT. AFTER I MOVED THAT BRACKET , IT IS STANDING UP SMILING NOW LOL

 

I knew there was an easier way.................. the bolt that this thread is about is not a bolt that holds the pump to the block. It is a bolt that holds the 2 halves of the pump together, the pump and pump housing. From the front it sure looks like a bolt that secures the pump, but when you get the pump off in your hands it becomes very obvious that I wasted 1/2 a day over nothing, plus thru away a car because of it

At any time I could of yanked on the pump and it would have fallen into my lil hands. I sold that van in 2007 because I couldn't get the last bolt off............ now that's a pisser, huh

 

D-OH! lol this is one of the funniest posts ive read in a while. thanks for the laugh sorry its at your expense

 

Naw, I really don't hate myself, I'm going to get the job done and save hundreds over what the dealer would have charged........ if you don't make mistakes ya ain't doing anything.

Ya know this is really one of those times that if I had smacked it with a bigger hammer instead of trying to figure it out, the damn thing wudda fallen on the ground and it would have been a non-issue LOLOL