So I just replaced my water pump with a new OEM style pump (Not a reman). I pulled, checked and re-gasket'ed my thermostat, and replaced my failed cooling fan clutch with a severe duty unit. My question is... how do I hold the water pump pulley (without prying on it) to tighten the nut on the clutch. There are holes in the pulley... is there a tool that matches the pattern to hold it fast? Will the rotation of the engine and force from the fan try to loosen or tighten the nut? It is right handed threads after all.

 

a spanner wrench should work to hold it, but most of us just use a strap wrench and call it a day, the spinning of the engine must tighten the clutch otherwise it could come off while driving down the road and as we all know that would be very very bad.

 

There isn't anything there to grab hold of with a spanner wrench (is there?). I Was going to rent one to do the job, but I did not think that I could make it work. I wanted to get it tighter... the instructions on the new clutch call for more than 50 ft lbs. Maybe I don't need to sweat it so much!

 

just put it on as tight as you can, don't worry about the torque specification on it. When the engine runs it'll tighten itself. I had to remove mine to replace a failed waterpump and then again the next day because my bypass hose started leaking. It was just as tight after tightening it by hand and running the engine as it was when I took it off the first time.

 

Thank you, That's good to know... The last one I changed was a Lefty, and the fan bolted to the pulley instead instead of the Clutch, giving me something to get leverage on... I replaced that bypass hose while I was at it. It looked original and did not want to chance a failure.