We found replacing the water pump changeling without some form of directions for our a Gen 1. Information about how to remove/install a water pump was scarce. We are thankful to some Viper Techs and Pros who shared their time and knowledge which allowed us to do the job.
The manual's information is limited; providing the order of the tasks but no actual help. The working space is very tight, the pump is long with hose tubes sticking out and you can’t mash the propellers or the Cam Sensor. There’s a high pressure line (power steering) that really gets in the way and the bottom [bolt] hole on the pump will periodically get wedged in between a pulley and the engine. A second set of hands seems necessary to help hold things and since that person is standing opposite they see what’s going on there and can provide direction.
(I combed a previous post with this one so that all of the relevant information is together, some details are repeated)
A couple things that weren't in the manual or were not clear/detailed enough:
-There are 7 bolts holding the water pump on. One of them is somewhat hidden or rather it's behind a pulley/alternator bracket. Unfortunately that bracket has a bolt in the exact place so you could think it is the right one, the pump won't come off until you get at the right bolt. Gary took the bracket off while leaving the alternator connected, then swung out of the way.
---There's one bolt which holds the Cam Shaft Position Sensor in the pump housing which is HAS to be removed. If you don't take this one off you'll be tugging the sensor while you’re pulling at the water pump. This will pretty much mess the sensor up.
-It is much easier to take the hood off to do this repair; hood removal is a two person job. Chuck Tator explained to us how to do it and there may be a post about it on the forum. I'm not going into the details as hoods are way too expensive for me to tell you how to do it.
-We didn’t remove the cross member support bar that runs in front of the pump. You bring the pump up and work slowly to thread/slide it out of there.
Getting the bad pump out involved tipping, wiggling, moving and finagling it towards the passenger wheel and then up. The pulley will bump into the cross member support bar which seems to prevent the pump from coming out. Eventually the pump finally pops out but it will be difficult to rereate how the damn thing came out.
We didn’t take the hood off. Instead we leaned into the space just over the wheels. If we had to do the job again I personally would not remove the hood although the job may have been easier if we had.
-Did not remove the cross member support bar, although it seems like that is the only way to get the new pump on.
-The Cam Sensor bracket/mounting pad/ tab IS bolted to the pump, you have to unbolt them. Again don’t mess up the Cam Sensor by pulling or tugging on it.
-An Alternator bracket hides one of the pumps 7 bolts, remove this bracket, and swing the alternator up and out of the way to get at the bolt.
The plan is to get the pump into the space, then the pulley onto the pump, then the O ring onto the pump and last we chose to apply some RTV (blue) to help hold the O ring in place and as insurance that the seal was good.
There was no practice run, to get the pulley onto the pump, once the pump was in place, is a one-time chore. We unclipped an electrical pack on the passenger side of the engine to provide a little more wiggle room for the pump. There was a hose or two that Gary took off for our convenience, as well.
In order to get the pulley on the pump work from the passenger side in the space between the cross member support bar and the engine. First get the pump wiggled into that area working from the top, then from the underside of the cross member support bar work the pulley up and onto the pump. This is the major task of the job. Keep wiggling, tipping and finagling the pulley and pump until you find a way to get them together and also slide past the cross bar. It can be done but requires patience and determination.
Next put the O ring in the slot and we used the RTV to help hold it in place. To get the RTV on the bottom edge of the pump/O ring area we used wood craft sticks and fingers. If we had put it on before the pump with pulley was in place it would have gotten smeared all over.
Ann
The manual's information is limited; providing the order of the tasks but no actual help. The working space is very tight, the pump is long with hose tubes sticking out and you can’t mash the propellers or the Cam Sensor. There’s a high pressure line (power steering) that really gets in the way and the bottom [bolt] hole on the pump will periodically get wedged in between a pulley and the engine. A second set of hands seems necessary to help hold things and since that person is standing opposite they see what’s going on there and can provide direction.
(I combed a previous post with this one so that all of the relevant information is together, some details are repeated)
A couple things that weren't in the manual or were not clear/detailed enough:
-There are 7 bolts holding the water pump on. One of them is somewhat hidden or rather it's behind a pulley/alternator bracket. Unfortunately that bracket has a bolt in the exact place so you could think it is the right one, the pump won't come off until you get at the right bolt. Gary took the bracket off while leaving the alternator connected, then swung out of the way.
---There's one bolt which holds the Cam Shaft Position Sensor in the pump housing which is HAS to be removed. If you don't take this one off you'll be tugging the sensor while you’re pulling at the water pump. This will pretty much mess the sensor up.
-It is much easier to take the hood off to do this repair; hood removal is a two person job. Chuck Tator explained to us how to do it and there may be a post about it on the forum. I'm not going into the details as hoods are way too expensive for me to tell you how to do it.
-We didn’t remove the cross member support bar that runs in front of the pump. You bring the pump up and work slowly to thread/slide it out of there.
Getting the bad pump out involved tipping, wiggling, moving and finagling it towards the passenger wheel and then up. The pulley will bump into the cross member support bar which seems to prevent the pump from coming out. Eventually the pump finally pops out but it will be difficult to rereate how the damn thing came out.
We didn’t take the hood off. Instead we leaned into the space just over the wheels. If we had to do the job again I personally would not remove the hood although the job may have been easier if we had.
-Did not remove the cross member support bar, although it seems like that is the only way to get the new pump on.
-The Cam Sensor bracket/mounting pad/ tab IS bolted to the pump, you have to unbolt them. Again don’t mess up the Cam Sensor by pulling or tugging on it.
-An Alternator bracket hides one of the pumps 7 bolts, remove this bracket, and swing the alternator up and out of the way to get at the bolt.
The plan is to get the pump into the space, then the pulley onto the pump, then the O ring onto the pump and last we chose to apply some RTV (blue) to help hold the O ring in place and as insurance that the seal was good.
There was no practice run, to get the pulley onto the pump, once the pump was in place, is a one-time chore. We unclipped an electrical pack on the passenger side of the engine to provide a little more wiggle room for the pump. There was a hose or two that Gary took off for our convenience, as well.
In order to get the pulley on the pump work from the passenger side in the space between the cross member support bar and the engine. First get the pump wiggled into that area working from the top, then from the underside of the cross member support bar work the pulley up and onto the pump. This is the major task of the job. Keep wiggling, tipping and finagling the pulley and pump until you find a way to get them together and also slide past the cross bar. It can be done but requires patience and determination.
Next put the O ring in the slot and we used the RTV to help hold it in place. To get the RTV on the bottom edge of the pump/O ring area we used wood craft sticks and fingers. If we had put it on before the pump with pulley was in place it would have gotten smeared all over.
Ann
