95 GTC 3.0 Water Pump replacement

Been doing some PM on the wifes car, got the fuel tank replaced only broke the cheap plastic roll over valve, $15 mistake. Was replacing the drive belts yesterday and noticed a coolant leak at the front (right side) of the engine. Looked a little harder and noticed the leak coming from the front cover which houses the water pump and to find out the water pump is driven by the cam belt. How much of a PITA is it to replace the pump? Does anyone know what the flat rate to do this job is? I guess I would replace the cam belt while I am there. As usual everything is attached to the front of the engine and has to be removed or relocated. Do the cam drive sprockets have to be removed to get the belt off or just the tensioner relaxed. There is a special tool to hold the cam gears to remove them and I would hate to piss the money for a ONE TIME tool. Any Ideas appreciated.

I just replaced the timing belt and water pump on my '96 3.0L. When I called around to the different garages in my area they wanted anywhere from $450 - $600 to do the job. I bought a book, did some searching online and did the job myself. If you look at the link below, it gives instructions on how to make a tool to hold the cam sprockets (which you really don't need unless you intend to replace seals) I sleeved and replaced seals on the cams and the crank while it had it apart. IIRC the book rate for this is somewhere around 5 hours. If you do decide to do it yourself, the front of the waterpump does not "just come off" - there is a small screw that screws in from the back side of the housing - do not try to pry the front of the pump off - you will break the tab. You will need to pry the complete pump off the coolant pipe that runs under the intake manifold (there is a large O-ring on the end of the pipe that fits into the back of the pump. If you are doing the water pump do yourself a favor and replace the timing belt also.

http://www.allpar.com/fix/3liter-timing-belts.html

Good Luck

Appreciate the info and the link, I think that I will ponder this for a while...

I replaced mine about this time last year. it was pretty much the first hands- on experience with fixing an engine, so i don't really have anything to compare it to. but yeah, it was a pretty big PITA