My water pump pulley is starting to make noise and it's visibly shot. It is wobbly and when I grab the fan I can feel play there. My question is: can I just replace the pulley or do I need to replace the whole water pump. If I can just remove and replace the pulley does anybody have any tips? Thanks

 

I just barely got through replacing my water pump as I had the same "grab the fan feel the play" as you did. The shaft that the pulley is pressed on to is the same shaft that the impeller is on to inside the pump. There's a bearing and a seal in between them that seals the shaft in the housing. That bearing is what's shot, giving you the play that you're seeing. If you're not leaking coolant, you will be soon. There's no replacement parts available. Time for a new pump.

 

The wobbly fan might be the bearing in the fan clutch going bad. Grab the fan clutch itself and move it up and down, side to side to see. Any play at all in it means the internal bearing is bad.

I replaced my water pump back in February, it had some odd warbling type noise and there was movement in the water pump shaft when I grabbed it and moved it from side to side. Engine was still running fine, not hot or overheating but I replaced the water pump anyway. My truck had 143,000 miles on it at the time, which is about the life expectancy of a factory water pump, I guess.

I don't know what engine you have or how many miles are on your truck, but on my 3.9 it was not too bad of a job. You have to remove a lot of parts in front of the engine to get to the water pump. Remove the upper fan shroud, belt, fan clutch/fan assembly, alternator, idler pulley, unbolt the AC compressor but leave the hoses connected to it and move it up on top or on the side of the engine to get it out of the way. I used a piece of heavy wire to temporarily hold my compressor out of the way, I put the wire through one of the compressor's bolt holes and wrapped it around the bolt sticking up from the TB for the air hat so the compressor would not fall back down on me while I was working. Then I removed the cradle that is bolted to the front of the engine in front of the water pump, then I had access to the water pump. It is a good idea to replace both upper and lower radiator hoses and the bypass hose while doing the water pump job. Napa had the entire upper hose assembly, both hoses, connector and a new cap; I think I paid $46.00 for it. They had the lower and bypass hoses too. That is about all I really was able to use from Napa. I tired to use a Napa pump, I had read they are supposed to be better, I found out at least with mine, that was not the case. If you care to read it, I posted/ranted about it here:

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...i-for-diy.html

Here is a few pics:

Fan shroud, fan, fan clutch removed:


Cradle removed, water pump bolts removed, ready to remove OEM pump:


OEM pump removed:


Napa water pump installed, most of the parts reinstalled:


All in all it was not a bad job, I just had a lot of problems with the faulty Napa pump, and also because I cracked the plastic on the upper section of my radiator overflow tank and windshield washer reservoir. I pulled too hard on the upper fan shroud when I was removing it and it cracked the plastic around one of the bolts on the back side of the coolant overflow tank. Be very careful when removing the shroud, especially on the driver's side. I had to get a new overflow tank piece at the junk yard, I was lucky they had one and it was only $45.00.

I have had no problems at all with the Auto Zone water pump. Some have posted here they had trouble removing the clutch fan nut. On mine I just turned the fan so the 2 blades with the wider spacing betwen them faced up, put a big ole adjustable wrench on the clutch fan nut and whacked it a time or two with a big hammer, hit the wrench handle towards the passenger side of the truck and the nut popped loose very easily. But I had removed my fan clutch once before that when I had replaced my OEM fan clutch about a year before I did this water pump job. You can rent a fan clutch removal tool kit for free at parts stores. I used one the first time I replaced my fan clutch but had to rig it up with a couple of bolts I stuck in the water pump pulley holes and then put the big spanner wrench across them to hold the pulley still so I could remove the nut with a large adjustable wrench. Others here have used vise grips to hold the water pump pulley still when removing the fan clutch. There are a lot of posts on here about that, I guess.

It is not a hard job, it is pretty straightforward, just a lot of bolts and parts to remove and reinstall. It really helps to have the right tools on hand, a well lit area to work and allow enough time for the job.

Jimmy

 

Most overlook these but they cause problems what I’m talking about are the wheels that the belt go around if they are the original then they are dry the bearings that is so replace those belt tension wheels they are cheap so do it you will be surprised how dry the bearings can be and still work.

You see how shinny that one is I bet anything the bearings are dry on that one its shinny because its dragging its *** causing friction and buffing it up when I replaced my wheels I took them apart and they were bone dry.

Caution they are deceiving they work and look just fine when this dry so you dont think they are bad but they are.

 

That's my idler pulley. I already replaced it with the Napa OEM equivalent part, I did that at about 80,000 miles, the original one had a slight bit of a grind to it when turned by hand. The Napa pulley still runs smooth as silk today, no noise or rough feel when turned by hand and no noise at all when I listen to it with my stethoscope either. The rest of my pulleys are all doing OK right now too.

Jimmy

 

My two such wheels looked great and rolled quit easily by hand and no sounds at all but I suspected they may be bad and replaced them when taken apart they were dry no grease in them at all and the bearing were all rainbow colors they were overheating because they were dry

Just a warning to all replace if the original are still in your truck.

 

Its not a bad job hardest part is getting the fan off and FYI I got my pump from autozone with a lifetime warranty for 69.99.

 

thanks for all the replies. Forgot to add that I have an 04 3.7. My truck only has 60,000 on it. Is that normal for me to have this problem already? I dont think its just the fan clutch because I can visibly see the water pump pulley wobbling. I do not however have any fluid leaking yet that I can see. What do you guys say? Replace the pump?

 

I just replaced a water pump the other day on a 2006 Mitsubishi Raider 3.7 V6 with only 34,225 miles, so it happens. You will need a new water pump as there is no listing for the pulley seperately as it is pressed on to the impeller shaft.

 

I replaced the water pump on my truck at 75,000 miles