98 water pump??

I need some help fellas. I need to change my water pump, but A) i cant get the pulley to lock in place, i try to take off the bolts, but the pulley still spins. 2) do i need to jack up the engine or use a cherry picker to lift the engine high enough to take off the old pump? Thanks for any help at all

What model Escort do you have and what engine code? The waterpump on the "p" code engine is driven by the timing belt so you will need to remove the timing belt to get the pump out.

If I understand your problem correctly, you are trying to get the pulley off the crank.... you should be able to remove a small access cover from the transmission and use a large screwdriver or prybar to hold the flywheel in place while removing the bolt on the pulley.