Water Pump 1990 Escort

[frafreg]

This is just some info about my experience installing a new water pump. It took me 9 hours to replace a leaky water pump on my 1990 Escort. I snapped the timing belt about 20,000 miles ago and the water pump still felt tight and wasn't leaking. Now I have about 56,336 miles on it. When I removed it the other day, the shaft was loose. Since the water pump works off of the timing belt, I replaced the timing belt again also. I had a bad front right motor mount also but was unable to replce it because the one I bought from Auto Zone was not made correctly. I brought it back and crossed referenced it with the original Ford part number and it was the correct part number for my year car. However, the new motor mount is made incorrectly and will not fit. The two bolts that go into the fender will not line up. I guess I could have placed it into a vice and bent it to spec but I figured I would go elsewhere to find another one from a different auto parts dealer. I flushed out the whole system until the water came out clear and replaced it with Prestone antifreeze. I just thought I would share this infor with those of you who might have to do this job in the future. Its a lot of work but I think it is worth it. I plan on keeping this car for a long time. Now all I have to do is replace the alternator because it has a noisey bearing. The last thing I want to do is locate a lifter that makes noise after warm up under a load just below 2000 rpm. Any advice on finding that noisey lifter would be appreciated. Thank you very much.

[UnexplodedCow]

Is yours a 1st generation, or is it the second? I have a '90 1st gen...love it. Water pumps generally are cheap...I think around 20-30 bucks. Timing belts are very cheap. As far as lifters go...I had that problem. Look into just getting a new set, or at least a couple new ones. You can take the lifters out one by one when the car is off, and you'll know which one's bad by it not being hard like the others. Try to compress it. If it does, you found one. I had multiple ones go on mine...but I ended up rebuilding the engine anyway, so I got new ones. Look into spending a lot, though. That year takes roller lifters, and those are not cheap. Look at the prices from a machine shop, they may be able to get you cheaper prices. I paid 70 bucks for a fulll set...vs around 150.