1996 water pump; how to remove interfering pulley?

[frugalb]

I am mid-process in removing the water pump from my 1996 Bonneville. (It is not the SSE.) The left-most bolt can only unscrew about 1 inch, then it bumps up against one of the pulleys, I'm not sure if it is just there to take up slack, or if it is the harmonic balancer. Well, I need to remove this so I can get the last bolt out of the water pump!!!
Any help?? What is it? How do I remove it?

I have the Chilton 28200 book, and it is near worthless. I decided to do this job myself as the description is basically "Remove the bolts from water pump. Scrape away old gasket. Install new pump."
They fail to mention that 1 screw is blind (I had to do it by feel) and that this last one cannot be removed unless I remove this other thing!!!

HELP! PLEASE!
thanks!

[LMP]

Am I right to think the interfering pulley is the belt tensioner? YOu might have to crank the belt tensioner up ....mmm..dangerous.. better remove the belt tensioner completely...
Here are 2 drawings from my GM service manual...not exactly your car but same engine ...
see at
www.avigex.ca/xport/pump1.jpg
www.avigex.ca/xport/pump2.jpg

you probably know...but if the drawing opens and shows too small in your explore browser, move the mouse pointer over the picture and this will pop a button that allows to expand. Better yet, use right click to download the drawings

p.s.: ???..I keep looking at these drawings and it looks there is more than meets the eye on that tensioner bracket...may be the power steering pump itself...wow, what a mess....gimme feedback

[frugalb]

Originally Posted by LMP

p.s.: ???..I keep looking at these drawings and it looks there is more than meets the eye on that tensioner bracket...may be the power steering pump itself...wow, what a mess....gimme feedback

Thank you for the feedback!!! This is amazing how quickly you replied to my request.

Bad news: this is similar to the info I was working from in the Chilton book. It makes no mention of the interfering item.

Good news: I paid $25 to AllData.com and they had one crucial item added to the "remove" list:

Quote:
Loosen water pump pulley bolts.
Drivebelt.
Water pump pulley.
Power steering pump mounting bolts and reposition.
Bolts from water pump.
:Unquote

So your "guess" was correct. It was the POWER STEERING pulley that was interfering. Next I looked this up in AllData and it showed me how to remove it, and things were easy after that.

Sorry to waste some of your time, but thank you so much, it is nice to have some support, and nice to give gripes and praise where it is due.

Gripes: Pontiac for making way too many variations in what is mounted where on the Bonneville engines, changing things from year to year, even changing within a year.
Gripes: Chilton for having such a useless book.

Praise: AllData for having enough information to get the job done.
Praise: Automotiveforums.com for having such quick support and help.

Good job on the guess.
Oh, the tensioner was easily "sprung" out of the way with a socket wrench, so cable removal and re-install was simple.
Thanks again!