'95 3.4 Water Pump Removal - Grrrrrrr!

[malc_p]

"Just a simple 5-minute job".
The times I've uttered that and regretted it.........
All water pump bolts undo real easy until we get to the one behind the power steering pump bracket. How in the name of ***** do I get the *that* bracket off? I've undone all the pump bracket fixing bolts I can find, even took off the ignition coil that was hiding another one but it still won't budge, have I missed something? (I have taken off three bolts on the pump bracket so far - two into the l/h cylinder head and one into the water pump body - and can't see another).
Confused of Hastings. :rant:

PS A happy New Year to you all and may your cars never let you down.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: '95 3.4 Water Pump Removal - Grrrrrrr!

sorry i can't help you at all. Just throwin this out there... at what point should you think about replacing the stock water pump?

[Forced_Firebird]

Re: '95 3.4 Water Pump Removal - Grrrrrrr!

The pump will drip out the weephole in the bottom when it's bad.

That bolt (actually a nut IIRC) is a big pain. You might be better off going from under the car and working by feel. I left that bracket off of mine with no inherent problems. The next toughest thing is the bottom bolt that holds the P/S pump to the bracket (behind the pulley). The way I found to get that oone out is by slowly removing it while keeping tension on the pump. Then to put it back in, just trim the bolt to length a little bit, just make sure you round the end of the threads, or it will never start.

-John

[malc_p]

Re: '95 3.4 Water Pump Removal - Grrrrrrr!

Hah! Thought I'd let you know that I finally got the sucker done.:rock:
It was impossible to find a pulley remover round here and I ruined a three-leg puller trying to get the pulley off, so I had to resort to other methods.
One thing I did find, and I'd recommend this to anybody who's experiencing difficulty removing an item, was that the sustained and focussed application of foul and abusive language helped enormously.
There's a nut fixing the top of the rear pump bracket onto a mounting stud, behind the pump at the top of the cylinder head - easy to get off. There's also a nut holding a pair of earth straps onto another stud, onto which the bottom of the rear pump mount bracket fits (I think this is the one you were talking about, Forced?). This is right down behind the pump and both the nut and the stud need to be removed; you can do this by feel, just follow the line of the earth straps.
Once these are off and the front (aluminium casting) bracket bolts are removed, you can lift the pump and brackets as one unit far enough that the last water pump bolts can be got out. No need to remove the pump-to-bracket bolts (front or rear) at all.
By the name of all that's holy, who *designed* this layout? 4 hours to replace a *water pump?* Un-frigging-believable!:rant: