I have followed my Haynes manual to the "T". Following steps are complete.

1. unhook the neg battery cable
2. drain the radiator and remove it to make the job easier
3. remove the serpentine belt.
4. remove fan clutch and waterpump pulley

I am stuck on

5. remove out timing belt cover.

All retaining clips are loose but it seems like i have to take off crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer in order to get it off. Do I need to follow the same steps listed in the "2.3L timing belt replacment doc" in order to get my outer timing belt cover off?
-remove all 8 spark plugs
-turn crankshaft pulley until piston #1 is at TDC
-remove pully

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

^bump ^bump

 

did you take the bolt off the timing cover? there should be 8 clips and one bolt. and you dont need to take the balancer off to get the cover off.

 

Yup, I have taken off the timing cover bolt and all 8 clips are loose. The problem w/ removing the cover is that there is about 1'' of it under the crankshaft pulley.

From your post below, it seems like Dayne was having the same problem w/ the outer timing belt cover. You recommened taking off the pulley and balancer.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222669&highlight=timing+belt+


Let me know.

 

^bump^bump

 

I look at my Ford manual after work if no one gets back to you.

 

Ken,

Appreciate the help. Look forward to hearing from you.

 

From my 1989 manual...

Drain coolant.
Remove two fan shroud bolts.
Remove four bolts retaining fan to water pump and remove shroud and fan.
Loosen AC compressor adjuster pulley and remove drive belt.
Loosen power steering bolts and remove alternator and power steering belts.
Remove water pump pulley. Vent tube to canister.
Remove heater hose to water pump.
Remove timing belt outer cover bolt. release interlocking tabs and remove cover.
Remove lower radiator hose from pump.
Remove water pump retaining bolts and remove pump.

 

I just moved the cover out of the way far enough to get to the water pump bolts and it worked just fine. I did not take the cover all the way off.

 

Yes, all I had to do was remove the outer timing belt cover. This allowed me to access all the water pump's bolts. HOWEVER, since I had over 150k on the orginal pump, the hoses basically melted onto the input / output of the pump and required me to remove the alternator and alternator bracket as the hoses snake thru the bracket.

Took a bit longer to free all these bolts that have never been taken off for over 10+ years! Thanks for the help and my truck is back to normal.