Water Pump

[captainzeros]

Okay, 720 leaking everywhere, had a mechanic say it needs a new water pump, quoted at $425. Thirty seconds on google tells me that it's about a $50 part, and thirty seconds in my FSM tells me it's a $50 pain in the a** to get to part.

In all honesty, I'm not an engine guy, at least not yet. How much of a job is this really? I don't have the means to pull the engine, can I replace the water pump on my own? Anybody done it, any tips?

Z22 engine for reference sake.

[flinterman2000]

Remove the fan and fan belt. You may have to remove the rad depending on the pump you have. If the clutch is part of the pump you will have to move the rad. If not unbolt the pump install the new one and you're done.

[MetalFab]

Remove the fan and fan belt. You may have to remove the rad depending on the pump you have. If the clutch is part of the pump you will have to move the rad. If not unbolt the pump install the new one and you're done.

The more you get out of the way, the easier this job will go. The radiator slips out with 4 bolts (10mm I believe) and two hoses+ little overflow hose. with a metric socket set and short extensions this should be an easy job. Part + socket/wrench set = easily $350 still in your pocket.

The knowledge gained from doing it yourself = priceless.

[moredunes720]

yeah, totally easy once you remove the radiator, once you get the fan shroud outta the way. I found that removing the fan assembly made it much easier to access the bolts holding it on. Just be sure to replace the gasket with a new one, of course. Order one from a junkyard, or pull it yourself. good practice

[captainzeros]

Yeah, already invested in a 10mm socket, and have wrenches and extensions. Every bolt I've found is 10mm, and I replaced my bumper, grill, fenders, hood, and front fascia due to rust and some minor fencepost tier collision damage.

I had someone else suggest an electric water pump, any opinions on the matter?

[captainzeros]

Woo, mistakenly ordered one without a pulley or fan clutch, instead of d!ck around with finding a proper pulley and doing an electric fan conversion, I just ordered another pump, durrrrr. Sending back the new one would be a pain in the a** though, so I'm just holding onto it/selling it on craigslist or here. I posted it in the datsun trucks sale forum as well.

[flinterman2000]

The pump on the truck, does it have the clutch built in. If not then you got the right pump. Just use the pulley from the old one.

[captainzeros]

It's an '81 with the Z22, the pump/pulley/clutch are all one obnoxious monolithic unit, I actually just picked up a pump with a clutch for pretty cheap, but ironically my fan is FUBAR so I'm gonna go electric anyways (unless I can find a mechanically driven fan in good shape at the local pick-n-pull)

Seems like Craigslist hooked me up with a local guy working on a 510 who might be willing to buy the pump I'm not using for the $20 I paid for it, I'll bite the shipping costs, but whatever.

[captainzeros]

Gee.... I wonder why my pump got unbalanced and started leaking....

[breadbox]

Wow, mine just had corners missing on one side of every blade. IDK what it was hitting.

[moredunes720]

mine got all jacked up because of a split motor mount bushing. The rubber that holds it together was gone to pieces on the driver's side, which caused the engine to jump every time it started off from a standstill. The fan blade chewed up the shroud and must have broken the fan clutch. This was all before I got the truck. They just kept driving it like this for along time. No wonder it kept overheating. It was blowing the head gasket like every 400 miles or so until I "fixed" it with 10 bucks worth of junkyard parts and a handy prybar and floor jack. new radiator helped the issue, but ultimately it could not cool off at idle.

[captainzeros]

Interestingly enough, even with the fan as is, I have never had an overheating problem, apart from a day when I catastrophically lost my fan belt and therefore my water pump and fan both were not running at all, nor my alternator. 200 miles from home in the middle of nowhere, of course. Stuff is getting replaced because it was pissing out coolant.

[flinterman2000]

When my fan belt burst, I used a piece of 28 gauge wire to reach home. Temp was a little hot but it worked.

[captainzeros]

I limped it 3 miles reeeeeal easy like with no alternator or cooling system to the nearest auto parts store and picked up a new belt. First time I've seen the temp gauge come much up above COLD.