its time to change the water pump on my 2000 psd (am 2 months out of warrenty *~^#). how bad of a job is it.should i spend the money to have someone do it or can a garage mechanic do it?

 

I did my '97 7.3 in a few hours and had no problem. You will need to buy or borrow a special wrench (1 7/8" if I remember right) and a strap wrench to remove the fan clutch. I bought one at Napa for about $30......that sure is a strange setup!!! I also had trouble removing the top radiator hoses without destroying it but I was replacing it anyways so I was more concerned about damaging the thermostat housing. The water pump came with a new lower pipe already attached to the pump so the lower hose wasn't an issue. It would also be a good idea to buy a new o-ring for the fitting that goes on the top of the pump (heater bypass???) Other than that the most difficult part was shelling out the $250 for the new pump!!!! Do a search online.....there's a great step by step article out there about doing a 2001 I believe.

Jeff

 

thanks jeff for the info. yea I will also need to get that wrench.

 

I did mine yesterday. It seems somebody (factory or prev owner) had replaced the thermostat. One of the three bolts holding the gooseneck on, was cross threaded. It took quite a while to get it out. Then I made a trip to the bolt store for new metric bolts and all was well again. My waterpump wrenches are homemade.

 

I would say its more like a....Lousy setup!!!

 

Here's a link to the article I used to guide me through the process as I have no repair manual.....yet.

Water pump exchange procedure

Jeff

 

"Lousy" yeah, that was the word I was looking for!!!

Jeff

 

I did my pump on my 96 2 months ago. Pep boys will "rent" you the fan clutch wrench and the holder thing for free. They had me buy the tool set they had and I returned it later that day. Saved me 30 bucks and alot of time!

 

did you have to buy the pump there or did they just rent the tools to you?

 

They just rented the tools, I got the pump at Napa. It was great!

 

Hey AJ, if you haven't already changed out the pump, I just did mine a couple of weeks ago -its not really hard (personally, I thought it was more difficult on my old '85 Ford Diesel than on my '99 7.3 psd.)
My fan would NOT come off -the bolt/nut had practically welded itself (well, since the "running" of the engine acts to continually tighten, it makes sense). One thing that threw me was that while my old engine had a bacwards thread, the '99 had a regular right-hand (clockwise) thread, so it unscrews in the normal fashion (as the fan itself turns counterclockwise, when you look at it from thefront).
Also, since the fan wouldn't come off, I had to work around it -thing will scratch the hell out of your arms by the time you get it off. If you have to do this, the screws that hold the fan shroud on (you will have to remove this if you have to take the fan out with the pump -instead of just letting the fan rest in the shroud the way the book says) are only on the top, the bottom of the shroud is just a set of slots that slide into place. No trouble. My fan was on so tight that I had to pull it with the pump, and use a monkey wrench (the impeller came off when I tried to use THAT to hold the shaft in place) on the shaft where the impeller was, to unscrew the fan.

Not sure about your pump price, but here (in the Tampa area of Florida) I couldn't find a rebuilt one for much under 200 bucks, and nobody had it in stock. Needing the pump NOW, I paid the price for a brand new one -just under 300- but at least it had a life-time warranty. Either way, if your hoses are questionable, add them to the cost (mine were fine, I left 'em alone).
If you have questions, email me. The site (I forget which poster sent it) looks like a good one -better than the ford factory manual (on CD) had, in many respects. But I do have the disk (99 should be the same for your 2000) so I can copy and paste the procedures for you.
As for the torque -I had a bad torque wrench (the kind that you "select your torque" and it will "click" when you hit the number -well, the bugger torqued off a bolt into the case. Took me about 2 hours to work it out (I REALLY didn't want to have to re-drill and tap on this engine) and I did it sans-torque wrench. The gasket that comes with these pumps is the soft-rubber "round" kind, so a little grease or anything tacky to keep it in place in the grooves in the water pump, and it will mate rather nicely -no gasket sealer required -and none used). Worked like a charm, no leaks. If you can, use the wrench. If you can't, then tighten them tight (no way should you be generating 40 or so footpounds of torque on a regular ratchet -if you don't use a dying strain, you should be fine). However, if you can, I always recommend proper torque as listed.