Need Water Pump Help

I am attempting to replace my water pump, but am running into a problem. When I go to loosen the bolts on the pully attached to the WP, it spins (I didnt take the belt off yet). How do I get this thing loose?

Is this even necessary? The Manual says yes, but If not tell me,please

Jesse

Use a pry bar between two of the other bolts you are not working on to hold pulley still while loosening a third with wrench. And yes you'll need to reuse pulley for the new water pump

thanks

jesse

I've used an old serpentine belt as a strap wrench in a pinch. Wrap the belt around the pulley and clamp it with vise grips or something similiar. Usually you just have to break the torque on those bolts and they spin right off.

bfred said:

Use a pry bar between two of the other bolts you are not working on to hold pulley still while loosening a third with wrench. And yes you'll need to reuse pulley for the new water pump

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Don't put the prybar directly on the thread though. Mushed threads will be a pain to put nuts on. I usually use a long screwdriver prying against the nuts to get all of them loose and then remove all of them by hand.

I usually just push down on the belt enough to stop it from spinning, then loosen said bolts....takes two hands.

Make sure you back off the power steering belt adjustment so you can get the belt back on and readjust.

When you replace the water pump, you might as well change your thermostat. Your their anyway, when I did mine I went to a lower temp thermostat and it really made a difference on long drives and when you get stuck in traffic on those hot summer days.:eeks1:

When I replaced mine I already had the belt off, just use two wrenches across from each other, but I don't remeber how I got the last bolt, think I just tightend one of the others back some

lawsoncl said:

Don't put the prybar directly on the thread though. Mushed threads will be a pain to put nuts on. I usually use a long screwdriver prying against the nuts to get all of them loose and then remove all of them by hand.

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x2, but when I break a nut loose I only spin it until it's finger loose; then I can still pry on it and not worry about squishing threads. Sometime I need to loosen it a lot, then reverse it back until it's got a fair amount of thread engagement.

XJadam said:

When you replace the water pump, you might as well change your thermostat. Your their anyway, when I did mine I went to a lower temp thermostat and it really made a difference on long drives and when you get stuck in traffic on those hot summer days.:eeks1:

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A lower temperature thermostat does absolutely nothing for your cooling performance. A 4.0 is designed for a 195 degree thermostat. There is no advantage to a lower temp one.

I think had the serp belt still on when I loosened the nuts on the pully (think I read that somewhere here on the forum). Worked really nice, in anyway a good idea to do on your way out. First put on the belt and then tighten the pully bolts. I think that's how I did it, it's been a while though and my memory is retarded.

I would certainly replace the thermostat, almost no extra work. Also, and I hate to confuse things for you, I would vote against taking a lower temp t-stat, go for the 195 degrees. Read go-jeep's write-up for more thoughts on that matter

http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoWaterpump.htm

Way I see it, the engine was designed for 195, so we need to keep it as close to that as possible, colder is not better. I would get a quality t-stat (see go-jeep link). They're fairly inexpensive and it will keep the temp from fluctuating much.

Just my $0.02.

use a 195, the t-stat was designed to keep the motor WARM.

87manche said:

use a 195, the t-stat was designed to keep the motor WARM.

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X2, but get a high flow thermostat and water pump and you'll notice the engine running cooler. I have had really good experience with the guys at HESCO.

http://www.hesco.us/shop.asp?action=details&inventoryID=45086&catId=7967