Water Pump Nightmare!

[formzy]

Been working on cars for over 30 yrs. and have not found a dummer set-up to replace the water pump than on the Ford Taurus. My girlfriend's sister has a '92 with the 3.8L engine and the seal went on the pump. All literature shows to remove this very simply. They have got to be kidding. Like others have said the engine should be raised. Absolutley no clearance between pump and fender frame. When all bolts are removed four studs hold the pump in and prevent easy removal. Prying, tugging, tapping with rubber mallet etc. to get pump out and in. No wonder Ford stock is falling. What were these "so-called" engineers thinking. At least they could have made access holes or a curve or dimple to allow ratchet wrenches with sockets attached to be used. Even the belt-tensioner had a heater hose in the way. Normally for me most jobs like this take me 2-3 hrs. and I worked on this car for many hours over two days. I'll never do one again without lifting engine which I don't have a engine hoist. Just sounding off here. Has anybody expereinced this nasty job and do you agree or not.

[Willyum]

Apparently you've never had to change the pump on a foreign 4cyl that has the rubber timing belts.....

[formzy]

No but very familar with these cars. Like I said before where's these engineers brains? No excuse for this type of stupidity!

[raybuick]

Its probably not the engineering, but the easier process of putting the car together by dropping the shell over the chassis. This causes many repair headaches .