so i just got my car into the drive way and put it up onto the ramps to i could get under it. when i got under it on the creaper i noticed that there was coolant dripping after examining where it could possibly be coming from i noticed that underneath the water pump was really wet like maybe from the coolant leaking fromthere. is there any reason that it would just randomly start to leak out coolant? and only from the bottom of the pump rather than the whole thing. its a 87 n/a bone stock.

 

yes, if the bearing goes out, there is a little hole on the underside of the water pump that leaks.

If the bearing is out, watch the fan, it should wobble off it's axis slightly.

 

If I remember correctly its called the weep hole. A little hole on the bottom of the water pump neck that allows water to come out when the bearing seal goes out. You need a new water pump. And don't buy a used one.

 

ok well i gotta be outta town soon so about how long would it take a normal person to replace a water pump?

 

2 hours if you are taking your time to make sure its done right. But that's because I am meticulous about my 7.

 

Kind of depends on your fan setup.
If you have an efan, you can get pretty much right to work removing belts and pulleys.
With the stock fan, the fan and shroud have to come off first.

Once the fan is out of the way, under an hour is easily doable, especially if you plan ahead and rotate your main pulley so it lines up with the timing mark.
If you don't, you'll end up dicking around trying to refind the correct pulley alignment with the offset bolt pattern.

 

I have always had an e fan, and I just changed my water pump without removing the e-shaft pulley. Why do you need to remove the e-shaft pulley to change the WP?

 

You don't...brain fart, senior moment.
Both times I've had the waterpump off I've also removed the housing, but this is not necessary for just the pump.

Mea culpa.

 

Getting it apart isn't hard. Its peeling off the old gasket and cleaning it theat takes time. I have a dremel so it only took me 15 minutes with mine. Otherwise its an hour maybe hour and a half tops.

 

yea took no time at all. took off all the bolts and got it out no problem. there was like 3 of us doing it so we really got it done. but i did notice that when i took it off the cover behind it came loose from the rotor housing i think, not 100% sure if thats what its attached to but anyways the part directly behing the water pump was loose when we removed the pump. not sure if that was normal or not.

 

Yeah its normal, but I fear if you didn't pressure test the system, you will soon notice coolant leaking from there behind the pump. Good luck finding a gasket for it at the auto parts store... you can make your own however if it does in fact start leaking.

But I'm thinking that what happened to me might also happen to you in that you loosened that housing off the gasket, and then when installing your water pump you tightened it up and may have cracked the gasket. Do you have access to a pressure tester?

 

Beware of bolt lengths, There are a couple different lengths and they go into a specific hole. Easiest way to manage this is asyour removing them, number them with a sharpie. Also, might as well change all your belts while your at it.

 

dot have access to one of those. but hopefully i didnt damage that thin.g not really feeling up to taking that back off. but i made sure i got the bolts back in the right plac.e im pretty **** about getting bolts in the right place with everything i take apart as for belts they are fairly new

 

Either way, double check over the next few times you take it for a drive. A small leak from the cracked gasket may seep out a little here... a little there... you get the point.
You can rent a pressure tester from a part store like auto zone. I know you may not be "really feeling up to taking that back off," but I doubt you'll feel that way when you're pulling the engine for a rebuild. Next time you have a little time to examine it go rent a pressure tester and make sure its not leaking back there.

 

blah so today they coolant buzzer started going off while i was heading home on lunch. after gettin home i opened the hood and noticed that there was a coolant leak. it is coming from behind the actual like water pump housing. behind the part i replaced. not really sure what this part is but its leaking. now will it be possible to get this gasket♠ from an auto parts store? or what?

 

i didnt hear anyone mention the small gasket that goes on the backside of the waterpump before... To get at that you have to slide it off of the block. Atkins rotary has that for sale

 

eh got it from mazdatrix. yay for having to take this all apart again :-|

 

Yeah, post #11 didn't mention that at all
nor was it mentioned again in post #14

Ahh don't worry... just think of it as extra practice. Just be sure to clean the surface area well before replacing your gaskets.