Temp Light on After Water pump replacement?

Ok, Here is my problem.

I have a 1996 Cherokee 4.0 with 109k miles.

Two weeks ago my water pump began to weap water from the bottom portion of the water pump. I tried to be proactive, so i haven't been driving it and i replaced the water pump, and when i was finished, i refilled the antifreeze and started her up, i let her run minute or two checked the coolant level, which was fine, then restarted her and let her run for five minutes. This is when the temperature light came on. I have dummy guages.

Should i let it run a little longer? What should i check? Should i clean the system, and if so what have people used to run through the cooling system to clean it?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

PBen

a minute or two or even five isn't long enough to bleed the cooling system. you need to let it run until the thermostat opens up. make sure the radiator is full and the reservoir is at least to the FULL mark if not a little over. then let it run until it gets to operating temperature. if you don't have a gauge, then just feel the upper and lower radiator hose until you can feel them getting hot.

you could also just let it run for about 20minutes, then shut it off and let it completely cool down. and do that a couple times. every time you shut it down, it will suck the coolant from the reservoir as it cools down and creates a vacuum until the system is full.

but however you do it, if you don't let it run long enoug for the thermostat to open, you won't be able to bleed the system. i got a feeling the light coming on would be normal in this case since the air around the sensor is getting hot from the engine, but the coolant isn't flowing yet. then again i would also be a little cautious without having a temp gauge just incase there is something else wrong.

To add to what scorpio said...this would be a good time to change the thermostat as well. Put a 195* in there. Most of them will have one hole offset from the center - you want to drill a second one 180* away from that and install the thermostat with those holes at 6 and 12 o'clock.

You also want to swap your instrument panel for gauges one of these days.

Jim www.yuccaman.com

Thanks guys for the responses. I let it run yesterday for awhile, but i didn't check it after it cooled down, so i will check it again and make sure it has the correct amount of coolant, than let it warm up and see how the Temp light responds.

Again Thanks for the responses.

PBen

Well the Jeep is back on the road. The overheating light just scared me a bit, but once it was warmed up and had cooled down it sucked itself full of water and hasn't given me any problems. :yelclap:

PBen