I was trying to remove my water pump yesterday and 2 of the long double sided threaded bolts snapped. I was putting the pump back on and I couldnt get the bolts back in. How do I take off the whole piece that the water pump bolts on to? Im going to try to bring it to my school so I can get out the broken pieces of the bolts and finish fixing my car if I can get that whole piece off. Also, Im going to need new bolts to replace the long ones. What is the thread pitch and size for them?

 

These long stuts they go directly to the front iron. Easier to remove the pump and take out whats left. Otherwise you would have to pull the motor if you want to work on it on the bench. Where did they snap ? In the middle or just inside the threads ?

 

They snapped in the back end in the piece behind the the water pump which is about 5-6 inches thick. I tried putting the long bolts back in but the broken pieces in the back prevent it from threading in. If I leave those holes open, its going to leak out coolant. I dont think Id have to pull the motor because when I was trying to pull the water pump off, the whole piece it bolts onto was moving back and forth separately from the engine.

 

take the wp house off, turn the broken studs out, get new studs, 1hr tops

 

That assumes they broke outside the plate, it could get nastier if they didn't.
BTW, the studs are 8mm x 1.25, I replaced mine with bolts that were @ 85-90mm long.
Use anti-seize when replacing.

 

Alright well I need to take the water pump housing off to get the broken studs out. Any tips how to get it off? I dont know if Ill surely have to take off the main drive belt pulley to get it out because its blocking the water pump pulley when I tried to take it off.

 

Boy, who saw this coming?

Yes, the main pulley must come off first.
NOT the hub, the pulley...four bolts hold it to the hub.
The four holes in the pulley are not symmetrical, the pulley will only align on the hub one way.

 

I recommend finding a factory shop manual or an online version. Its my bible. Now about your problem I may have a set of water pump studs kicking around my shop if you cant find any. I'm thinking threaded stock might work for you aswell.
Good Luck!

 

Ive already tried pulling off the pulley with those 4 bolts removed. The pulley will not budge at all. I just tried again just now and I still cant get it off. Its really stuck on there

 

I have the Haynes repair manual to work with and I use it a lot. Its very helpful

 

Pop any other accessory pulleys off the front.
Then only the main pulley should sit there.
Grab a pry bar and work at it.
That pulley only sits on about a 1/4 inch lip on the Hub.
Really it is not difficult.

 

dead blow hammer, its very useful for anything old (cars, animals, people, etc...)

 

It's probably too late now...but it's a good idea to keep track of how the bolt holes align on the main pulley. Like Clokker said, they only align one way, so you end up trying all different combination till you find the only one that works. I simply take a ziptie and run it through one bolt hole of all the main pulleys. Save some headache when trying to put them back on.

Hopefully only those studs broke, and not what they thread into.

Oh and toss me a PM if you need those two studs, I have some spare and will send them to you...so long as you pay shipping.

 

I took all the pulleys off, all the belts, checked the water pump and it seems fine now. I put everything back on (aligned all main pulley holes and put it on), all the belts back, made sure everything was tight enough to specification, and the adjusting bolt to the air pump snapped, one long bolt on the water pump snapped so its stuck in the back, and the nut to one of the other studs on the water pump wont go on so I need to use a tap and die set on it. After I put everything back on coolant started pouring out from the hole where the stud snapped off on the water pump so Im fucked there for now. As for the air pump adjusting bolt being snapped off and stuck in the pump, I lifted it high enough and tightened the other bolt on the pump to keep the belts tight enough. Im gonna be stuck for a while until I get money because right now I have less than $10 in the bank.

 

just walk away from cars man, changing anything on the front of these engines is very very easy.

sell it and buy a 3rd gen F-body

 

Holy crap man, what are you using a socket wrench with a special sledgehammer attachment?

So you've got:

1. one of the studs that both attaches the water pump to the housing , and the housing to the front iron with either a stripped/cross-threaded nut or stud
2. One of the studs that both attaches the water pump to the housing, and the the housing to the front iron broken
3. One broken bolt for the air pump bracket

 

Water pump on fc's is by far the easiest removal on any car I've worked on.

Front wheel drive is the worst, that's why I love my fc. Everything is right there and can be taken off with minimal effort compared to other cars.

Take what happened as a lesson and get a torque wrench so you don't over torque bolts and break them, or simply don't keep tightening something that feels tight (once its really tight you at most need to tighten it another 1/4 turn if at all).

When taking them off only use enough force to get it to break free, over doing it will break things, increase the force you use gradually until it breaks free.

 

PB blaster and a deadblow hammer are your friends. Make sure you aren't over torquing things when you refasten them.

Looks like you are going to be removing everything again to fix all the bolts you broke. You may have to drill them out and use Helicoils to get everything snug again. Remember to use silicon over your paper gaskets for the water pump and let the seals set before starting everything up again.

 

Kenshin , I thought you knew everything and had life figured out. I guess not.

 

The lounge lol.

 

For the water pump stud, I didnt use too much force as youd think, the nut on the end looked welded on by rust, and the stud must have been weakened a lot by rust. The air pump adjusting bolt came off nice and easy, but didnt wanna go back on and I made sure it was threading in straight. I have a torque wrench which Ive used to tighten the center on the pulleys to 40 ft lbs, but the air pump bolt was on about halfway and it got stuck.

Im gonna have to take everything apart again but its no problem now since I know where the belts and everything else goes. Im going to work on taking out the housing that the water pump sits on.

Molotov, open your mind already.

 

That housing shouldn't be secured by anything after removing the water pump itself, other than rust most likely. Here a deadblow hammer is really your friend. If those bolts broke inside the threads and they're all rusty you really don't have many choices, once gain I'd drill them out and re-tap the threads for a heli-coil. That's happened to me before, it wasn't too difficult.

 

I got everything off, the water pump, water pump housing, and air pump which has the broken bolt stuck in it. Im gonna bring it to school to drill it out and borrow a tap and die set to fix the threads on the stud to the water pump. i was able to put the broken stud back in securely into the front rotor cover so I just need to get new gaskets and an air pump bolt and im all good. I can take it from here.

 

I broke that air pump mount bolt on my last NA but I wasn't using it anyways so it didnt matter.

 

Forgive my cynicism but this doesn't sound right.