I feel sheepish posting this, but how did you get your seized water pump housing off? It's on an S4 n/a. One stud came out, the last three won't budge. I've tried lots of the Ol' PB B'laster over a couple days, lots of heat with an O/A torch around the stud both on the housing and the end plate wherein the stud threads, B'laster on the heated studs and housing, brass hammer, sledge hammer on the brass hammer, pry bar between the housing and end plate and wrapping on the housing with the brass hammer... I'm about to get the rosebud end for the torch, heat up the whole housing, and go to town with the B'laster and a sledge.

It shouldn't be this hard! What's the trick? The engine's on a stand.

 

how bad have you mangled the housing? if the pump is that hard to remove you might look into a whole other pump and housing. post pics i wanna see this thing. ive never had a problem removing these since it is a cast iron pump on an aluminum housing. should have came off easily...

 

Why are you removing the studs?
to remove my WP/WPH I removed the 3 nuts and the bolt going through the Alternator tension arm, I found those 3 studs to be quite rusty.

Hope this helps.

 

Should be obvious which are studs and which are not. If most are seized, some idiot used loctite on the threads. It's not that difficult to loosen, even if it is corroded.

 

I was attempting to at least turn all the studs to free up the dross in there so the housing can slide off. The pump looks great and came right out with just a tap of the brass hammer.



^ Using this lip as a smack spot, I peened it over. I can grind that down and make that look fine. I'm powdercoating some stuff, so I don't care about this looking perfect. Still, I'm being strategic where I smack the housing. I'd rather it not crack, even though I have a housing on my car I can use... it's just not as convenient. Plus that one could give me fits, too.



^ There you can see the remaining 3 studs. The hole below and to the left of the rightmost stud is the hole where the one stud turned out.



^ Between the stud and housing you can see the buildup that's evidently still holding tight.

I agree with you, vanhalen, there's something fishy, or I'm completely missing something.

 

Here's some pics of my misfortune.



^ The rosebud doing its duty with some success.



^ Success?



^ Not remotely.



^The rosebud helped, but I was wrapping on the housing pretty hard as a last resort after the rosebud only allowed minimal relief. I didn't realize the tab for the housing on the endplate was so thin. Now I know. After I noticed the cracked tab, I went into a slightly controlled rage and hogged the sucker off. Even after I got the housing pivoting on one stud, the stud still wouldn't turn inside the housing. There had to have been loctite, JB Weld or some other crud in there to make it that strong. It's ridiculous.

So, if you have trouble getting your housing off, even after a lot of heat, just cut the housing through the studs and yank that clown off. Then drill out the remaining studs in the endplate and put new studs in.

 

Personally, and this is just my opinion, you shouldn't have used the rose bud and went with a more concentrated heat right on the stud. Try to red heat just the stud itself. You may have ended up having to replace the stud because of damage from the heat but, I bet it would have come out.

 

That's a good idea, which is why I did that very thing before I brought home the rosebud.

Since I've nothing to lose with that housing, I might play with the heat some more to see if those studs will come out. Or I'll see if a 5.56 bullet will go through it. Maybe both, or neither.

 

That's f*cked up....

 

You should have used a hatchet, Jack.

 

Ha I've actually had this happen to me too! Cutoff wheel'd thru the WP stud, trashed the front iron & I think ended up trashing the WP housing too once I realized it was FULL of pry marks.

Dis-similar metals FTL

 

Good one.

Yeah, I'm not too fond of it either. I'm disappointed in myself for not cutting through the housing and the studs in the first place. The remainder of the studs came out of the front plate fine. Live and learn.

I'm going to a local welding shop to see if they can successfully weld on the tab. After I talk with the shop or I find out that irons can't be welded upon, I'll post my findings for whomever may unfortunately be in this situation.

 

I saw your name and couldn't resist.