Notes on Water Pump Removal – Engine in-situ with Aircon & Power-Steering

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Water Pump Removal – Engine in-situ with Aircon & Power-Steering

These are some notes on the removal of the water pump, given that it has several extra steps compared to a non-aircon, non-power-steering car and is not well-explained in any workshop manual I have seen.

Background: S2 2+2, 4 speed, Aircon, Power steering, lhd

The engine is a 4.2 from a S1.5, but with S2 ancillaries. I believe the steps are the same.

My water pump part number is C28414. The number is near the 3 O’Clock position of the casting, relative to the pulley.

The main difference to other cars is that the aircon/Power steering/alternator bracket (hereafter “The Bracket”) needs to come off the block and that requires several more steps than on other cars.

**Asterisk ** * means a step that may be optional in your case.

Here are the steps:

  1. Disconnect the battery. You will probably be disconnecting the radiator fans later and may have a stray wire knocking around.
  2. *If you know how to remove the hood and can do so easily, go ahead. But it is not at all essential to remove it and if it presents any difficulty don’t. I didn’t. There are several posts on how to do it, none from me
  3. Safely raise the front of vehicle to allow some access beneath the engine.
  4. Drain the coolant and disconnect all hoses to the radiator and to the water pump
  5. *Remove the front exhaust manifold from the head (OR confirm you can access the two (2) bolts that hold the air-con bracket to the side of the engine block AND the two bolts that hold the aircon compressor to the The Bracket. The two bolts on the block are ¾” head and will be beneath the front exhaust manifold. I chose to remove the manifold from the head!)
  6. Remove all four belts (alternator, power-steering, air-con, crank-to-water pump). You will need to loosen the aircon idler-pulley bolt. You will need to loosen one of the power-steering bolts to relieve tension on the PS belt. Similarly, for the alternator. Presumably you will find a sprung tensioner for the water-pump belt.
  7. Remove the alternator. (You may leave it connected electrically and rest it on driver’s side front suspension but be very sure not to close the hood on it later and don’t strain the wires! If you remove the radiator, the alternator can go down there, with care, later so you can close the hood again.)
  8. *Remove the radiator and fans (you do not need to remove the aircon condenser. Unbolt the condenser from the radiator and lay it down gently). You do not need to detach the fans from te radiator. But before you do this radiator removal step, first see if you can easily get a socket ratchet and extender bar in to all the nine (9) water pump bolts from the front. If you can, wonderful, no need to remove the radiator. I couldn’t and I had other reasons to remove the radiator anyway!
  9. Remove the two (2) bolts that hold the power-steering pump to the aircon/PS bracket. One is long; one shorter. They each go fore-and-aft. No need to disconnect the fluid hoses. The pump will stay more-or-less in the same place. No need to remove it from the engine bay.
  10. If you did not remove the exhaust manifold earlier, you will at least need to remove the small bracket between the front stud of the front exhaust and the aircon compressor
  11. Remove the air-con compressor from The Bracket. Two bolts underneath the bracket go vertically into the base/side of the compressor. My compressor is horizontally mounted. I suspect it is the same for the earlier vertical mount. You do not need to disconnect the aircon hoses. Rest the compressor somewhere that allows the hood to close.
  12. Remove the front-most pulley on the water pump. This will, hopefully, later enable you to remove the pump without fouling it on the picture frame. The front pulley is held onto the rear pulley by four (4) bolts. Rotate the pulley to enable you to get to each of the four bolts without fouling on the picture frame. Lever the front pulley off with a couple of screwdrivers or similar. A two-jaw puller will probably foul on the picture frame. Mine came off easily.
  13. Do not attempt to remove the rear-most pulley from the water pump yet. To do so is probably unnecessary. Wait until you prove you need to, or when it’s on the workbench
  14. You can now start removing some of the water pump bolts. But read on and do not start with the most easily accessible bolts on the engine intake side.
  15. You will need an extender bar and come in from in front of the picture frame. This is why you removed the radiator and fans or why you will need to work around them. Some bolts will be accessed from under the picture frame, some from above it.
  16. Start with the four (4) water-pump bolts that hold on The Bracket on the driver’s side of the pump (lhd). They are a little bit hidden underneath the bracket. They are on the exhaust side, but more easily seen when standing on the intake side of the engine. Remove these four first. Leave the other water pump bolts in place until you complete the next step of removing The Bracket.
  17. The Bracket by this point will still be attached to the engine with the two bolts under the exhaust manifold. ¾” heads. Remove these bolts and remove The Bracket from the engine.
  18. Remove the remaining water pump bolts. Most will come with a socket. One may require an open-end wrench
  19. Remove the water pump from the block/timing cover. If your engine uses bolts to hold the pump on, it will probably clear the picture frame quite easily. If it used studs, you may need to remove the main pulley and/or raise or lower the front of the engine (look for posts on that).

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