Hey guys about 6 hrs into our drive through northern BC heard what sounded like a pully bearing going out and stopped to investigate. Water pump pully shaft was walking in and out 1/4inch and squealing with rough catching sound. It also flung grease all over thought it was oil at first but now pretty sure it's dark brown grease from pulley shaft. So we are several hrs from closest town they don't have a shop or parts store and it's a blizzard. How long until it let's loose and what is worst case scenario bearing seizes throws belt and I crash land with no power steering or brakes? If I can find a pump how hard to change it with limited tools in the snow?


Thanks Ryan

 

it' pretty easy to change, two bolts on the pump.... and the belt tensioner has to be operated to take the belt off ..........you biggest worry is overheating

 

If that pulley is walking in and out, chances are that the impeller is doing the same thing on the inside. I'd hate to see it chew up the block if you kept driving.

 

where in bc are you

 

In between blue lake and valemount....found a water pump in kamloops that I can get shipped up. Do you loose all the coolant when you pull the pump? Nobody has any HOAt coolant so that is another issue may just film it with the green stuff to get home. On the bright side still made it up sledding and pow was over the hood deep!

 

What ever you do, don't add any green coolant. You'll end up in more trouble than your in now.

 

Ok so should I catch all the coolant I can when loosening the pump a d try to re-use it or add wAter to top it off? Just need to make it back stateside then I can flush and refill.

 

If you add water your system will be unbalance and you risk freeze up, I would a gallon of the proper coolant, catch as much as you can, and top off with the stuff you pick up.

 

Pretty easy to change. I drain the coolant into a 5 gallon bucket by pulling the clamp and then the lower radiator hose. You can use the drain on the bottom of the radiator but sometimes it is hard to get sealed back up. Release the belt tensioner from the bottom with a 1/2" (might be 3/8") rachet (there is a square hole in the tensioner arm that it will fit into) and pop the belt off the AC pulley. That should give you plenty of slack to work. Take a good look at the routing of the belt. Go up top and there are two bolts 10mm I think, in the pump. Remove those and the pump should come out pretty easy with a little prying. There is an O-ring seal on the back so watch that the new one goes back in place. Bolt it up and get your belt back on. Check it around each pully to make sure it is in place. Pour the coolant back in, check for leaks, and then go through the burp the air out process. You will probably lose a gallon or so, but you can temporarily replace with water til you find some hoat as long as you keep some heat in the system. Maybe plug in if you can.

Loosen one of the pipe plugs on the exhaust side of the upper front of head with an allen wrench while the engine is running. When it starts leaking coolant, tighten it up and top off the radiator and overflow tank. Warm it up and check for a firm upper radiator hose. Repeat til the hose gets hard and you will have all the air out. Once it is pretty full and you are getting no more air out of the plug, you may have to go through a heat/cool cycle to let it purge the last little bit of air out through the recovery tank.

It should only take 30 minutes in the driveway, maybe longer in a blizzard!!!
Good luck, and stay warm as you can, man!

 

I agree with RTillery.

Catch as much fluid as you can and when you put it back, top it off with water. You will not have as low a temp protection but it will not freeze up solid and do damage if it should get below 0*F. Put some cardboard in front of the radiator to keep the temps up while running and stopped.

Remove the allen plug next to the thermostat when you refill, the engine does not need to be running, until fluid comes out. Put the plug back in and finish filing. As much as a gallon of air can be trapped in the engine, I know from experience.

 

Don't drain all the fluid. Just drain enuff to be below the pump.

 

When you get the old pump off, fish around inside its cavity in the block to make sure there are no pieces left in there. When a water pump has a catastrophic failure, sometimes it comes apart.

 

Ok so this local guy in town here got a pump sent up from kamloops...thought it was from the dealer but it is an A1 cardone pump not sure if it's a reman....I remember reading posts on here about these pumps not fitting bolt holes not Linning up and he want $150 for it....not sure what to do really dont want to get the old one out and have the new one not fit....and I'm worried it's a reman POS...


Thanks for all the help!!

 

a reman water pump costs about 51 dollars plus core charge

 

I recently had the post about the bolt holes being slightly off on the reman pump. Where you are at, you are going to get gouged on the price but a brand new one at Auto Zone was well under fifty bucks. Hope you are making headway.