97 Continental Water Pump Issue, Maybe

About a week ago my 97 developed a loud and constant grinding sound on the S-Belt side of the engine.

I figure it has to be something on that belt such as the water pump or the tensioner pulley.

I'm pretty mechanically inclined and I got a lot of good information from this thread .6L Belt/Tensioner Replacement so I should be able to handle this myself but I have a few questions

Are there any dangerous components I need to know about that side of the engine?

Is there a definitive way to determine which component is failing?

So I was wondering how hard is it to replace the Water Pump?

Is there anything I can do to make the job easier, such as removing the inner fender?

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.



What you need is a good quality Ford Factory Service Manual designed specifically for your 1997 Ford Car, by Ford... am I right ?

Click on my forum name, follow the menu to my homepage, on my homepage you'll see a link where you can download your copy of the 1997 FSM.

It's all in there :)

Below the FSM links is a link to the PC installation instructions.

Generally speaking, the more crap you move out of the way, the easier these things are to deal with. It may not be totally necessary to remove the inner skirt though.

Once the belt is off, spinning the components should reveal the bugger.

The water pump (knock on wood) wouldn't be the funnest thing to replace, lets hope it's just a tensioner bearing...

It was the water pump.

I went to your site and clicked on the right link but was asked to enter a VJC.

I don't know what this is or where I get it from.

I went to your site and clicked on the right link but was asked to enter a VJC.

I don't know what this is or where I get it from.


Oh.. no problem, that VJC is a randomly selected entry code to prevent hot-links.. you'll get a different (random) code each time you click my link :)

After you enter the code, a 45 second timer starts before the download button illuminates.

Sorry for all that mystery :) It's a FREE hosting site, and I'm cheap!!

Ok, I got it down loaded and unzipped and I have it mounted in a clone drive.

However, when I double click on the INSTALL.EXE I get the following message:

H:\INSTALL.EXE is not a valid Win32 application.

What am I doing wrong?

Ok, I got it down loaded and unzipped and I have it mounted in a clone drive.

However, when I double click on the INSTALL.EXE I get the following message:

H:\INSTALL.EXE is not a valid Win32 application.

What am I doing wrong?


These are 16bit applications, which are compatible in every Windows OS through XP Pro, but not XP 64.

I don't have an XP 64 machine so I can't describe how to get a 32bit installer working on them although I'm reading on Google it may be possible.

I just have the home verion of Windows XP

I just have the home verion of Windows XP

Me too, I have four of those and they all work fine. Are you updated on everything MS sends your way?