I need to replace the water pump on my 89 van. The haynes manual says I need to remove the radiator. Has anyone done it without removing it?

 

You do NOT remove the radiator, you must remove the radiator shroud and the fan/fan clutch. As I recall, the hard part is the fan and clutch can't really be removed once unbolted with the shroud in place and the shroud can't really be removed with the fan in place. The best way was unbolt the fan clutch except for one bolt, unbolt the fan shroud but leave the top 2 bolts in there only one thread deep. Then undo the last fan clutch bolt and take the last 2 bolts holding the shroud out by hand and remove them together.

Or maybe it was that you unbolt the fan off the fan clutch first, then the shroud, then the fan clutch. Maybe that was it. Take a look and see what you can do.

Be sure to use new water pump bolts. They get rusty and if you break a bolt the only way to extract it will be to remove the whole timing cover. In this case you will want to put in a new timing chain for sure (it probably needs it badly at this point if it has never been done). Be aware of this possibility, it's substantially harder than the water pump alone.

 

It's good practise to remove the radiator, just to prevent damage. You probably don't have to remove it, but since the coolant must be drained anyway, you only need to remove four bolts, and the oil cooler lines, and it's out. To me it's worth the trouble. I would rather take it out in one piece and make plenty of room for cleaning and scraping gasket surfaces, than to poke a whole in it.

DannyM is right about removing the fan and fanshroud. It's a kind of jigsaw puzzle. And they ususally need to come out together. Removing the Fan will be easier if you buy the FAN wrench set. DannyM is right you can get it out by loostening all of the attaching screws in a puzzle like sequence, but after doing that, I went out and bought the FAN wrench set.

You didn't say if your engine is a six or eight. If its a six, you have timing gears not chain. You may consider pulling the timing cover and inspect the timing gears if it is a 300 six. If you want to pull the timing cover on the 300 - six, You will need to pull the crankshaft pulley. It's do-able by the average home mechanic, but beware, you will definately have to pull the radiator for that job, and you will need new timing cover gasket set (includes seal).

 

Thanks for the info. It's a 302 V8.

I didn't mention the engine as its listed in my sig. Or is my sig. not showing up? I don't see it when I view my own posts but I see it if I preview them, and I see it in others.

 

You done the timing chain on that vehicle before? If it's an '89 you might think about it doing it at the same time. It makes the job at least 3x longer but that chain will give you much grief if it slips or breaks. Also slack made really crappy performance in my case (might have slipped a tooth). Having to deal with it when you're out of town sucks ballz. It got MUCH better gas mileage and power when I got a new one in.

I never worried about the radiator for either the water pump or timing gear job. IMHO removing it is more risky than working on this stuff. Though now that I think about it a friend of mine was just working on a water pump on a Chevy truck and inadvertently punched the radiator.

To do the timing chain you gotta pull the smog pump, remove the alt bracket, a/c & power steering bracket, pull the harmonic balancer (need a special tool). You then need a timing gear set (around $20 or less) and a gasket set which should include the water pump gasket. And you need a timing light.

 

I just want to make it usable for my son who turns 15 next month. I'm not going to worry about the timing chain. If it craps out later then I'll junk it as I also have a 91 Caravan along with my 3 Fords and it drives fine. My wife doesn't drive so really the 89 is an extra vehicle.

 

I leave the radiator in place. You remove the shroud and the fan clutch/blade assy together.

antisieze the bolts so they don't corrode.

 

I'd probably pull the radiator for the additional working room and also have it professionally cleaned and pressure tested... but I generally like over-doing things...