I've replaced dozens of water pumps on several different cars/trucks, but this failure puzzled me becauseno coolant is leaking, yet the shaft is so loose!2 days after I bought the truck (with 115k miles) I heard a loud clanging fromunder the hood, first just a little/intermittant but slowlywent to constant.I didn't suspect the w/p right away because no leak!. After a good look over I finally found that the shaft is definately wobbling almost 1/4 inch.All other w/pwould leak (or even dump) coolant at the firstsign of bearing failure, but never wobble this much.

So I'm playing hooky from work tomorrow for repairs but was wondering if anyone else has seen this?

 

my 01 did the same thing, except it went from 'fine' to 'crapped out' in about a 30 second period. on a cold start at work one day it went from ticking to jerking to banging, to clattering, then stalling. so i removed the belt to see what was going on and it had spit needle bearings out all over the frame, and the pulley was just sort of wobbling around and rubbing on the casting. no leak. first time i had ever seen behavior like this too. i had to have it towed home.

if you need a plenum repair, timing chain or front seal or oil pan, or tune up, or hoses.... now is the best time. i did all that and it took about a week working in evenings only. there was no rush because i was waiting on the hughes plenum anyway. hughes did good though, i ordered on a sun night and got it on thursday afternoon. but i still didn't finish till saturday.

 

Pump, stat, belt, fan clutch is all for this round (so that I can afford gas). Is the plenum a sure thing to happen? seems plenty of discussion about it but haven't looked closely. Only on day 3 of ownership...

 

day 3... that sucks. if your plenum gasket has never been replaced, its almost a sure thing.. pinging under load is one clue. heavy oil usage is another. oil puddle in belly pan is another - look down through the throttle body to the belly pan and look for puddles of oil. you can see better by removing the TB. i had both at 120k on my 01.

 

I agree with dhvaughan. You don't neccessarily have to do the plenum now, but it would be easier being able to stand in ther with the fan/shroud removed, and you won't end up paying for coolant twice,but definitely do the timing chain.It's essentially, aside from removing the harmonic balancer,just a handful of bolts and a gasket past the water pump.The timing chains on these trucks are crap. Get a good double roller chain/gearset without the nylon inserts

 

Thanks, I'll definitely look. And for those of you who need to change the water pump but can't loosen the big fan nut, I learned a trick years ago before strap wrenches were available (even now they are sold out here, though) -

Take your old serpentine belt and a large vise-grip, loop belt around w/p pully and pull both ends under the alternator pully then over it. On top of the alternator pully, double the belt back to the left (towards passenger), the belt will be 4-thick because you have doubled it, clamp the vise-grip over the doubled belt tight directly on top of the alt pully so that it levers to the right so as to tighten the beltaround the water pump pully. You now have a shade-tree strap wrench! Push the vise-grip right while pulling the big wrench on the fan nut left. Takes a little practice, but I've had plenty.

Wow, that was easier to do than to say...

Rusty

 

Thanks mo, should've thought of that! But I'm already back together dangit. Did a friends Ram timing chain a couple months ago, went pretty smooth. I'm gonna have to quit talking to y'all before my to-do list exceeds my life span!!! Taking a dinner break before I finish installing my transmission cooler. Didn't have ATF 4, all my others use Dex/Merc, another trip to the store...

 

I once had a water pump completly seize up without a leak. I was driving to school and the thing ( 79 mustang 2.3liter) just started to squeal something awful. It burned the belt to a crisp.