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Water Pump is shot


mechgt
09-02-2005, 09:49 AM
1989 Mitsubishi Mighty Max - ~135k miles
My water pump just went out and I believe that it's leaking out the front around the bearing. Anyway, does anyone know how difficult it is to replace? It's stranded in a parking lot 20 miles away (interstate driving). I'm comtemplating whether I should try to limp it back to my house with some jugs of water or fixing it in the parking garage. The garage is empty on the weekends so I could do it then. Any suggestions or tips on replacing it?

mechgt
09-03-2005, 09:34 AM
Well I got the water pump off. Not too difficult.

1. Remove the plastic housing from around the fan
2. Detach and remove the fan from the water pump. It's held on by 4 nuts in the center.
3. Had to remove the plastic timing belt covers. There were two covers. To get the bottom one off, I had to take off the belt pully that's connected to the crankshaft on the bottom.

Once I got that off, removing the water pump was fairly straight forward:
4. Use something (pliers, screwdriver, etc...) to remove the spring that's against the water pump. It's on the opposite side from the water hose.
5. Remove the hose connected to the pump, and remove the bolts holding it on.
6. Notice the metal tube going into the water pump. That's just pressed into the pump and sealed with an o-ring. Pull the pump straight forward to remove it.
7. The pump should now be able to slide out from behind the timing belt.

While you're all the way in there, I always understood it's a good idea to replace the timing belt also.

mechgt
09-03-2005, 09:39 AM
I got down to the timing belt and water pump as previously posted, and found that the balance belt was busted. I guess it's been like that for a while. It's the smaller belt just behind timing belt. Well I went to the store and bought one, but there's not enough clearance around the crankshaft gear to get it on. Now what? How do I get the balance belt on?

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