Rough job. Water pump is a challenge. Just did mine. Make sure you're only torquing 15 then 18 ft-lbs.

 

Just finished installing new water pump and water pump backing plate last night. PITA. Middle 4 bolts would NOT line up when outer bolts were on. I had cracked top middle tab on timing cover. Tack welded the tab back on with water pump bolted (with 4 bolts). Disconnected battery, harnesses, took distro cap off, all relays and fuses out of PDC box. Grounded a couple inches away. Kind of a snake of a weld bead, cause it was starting to blow through, but i should have turned frequency down = less penetrating heat, more surface heat = better for cast aluminum.

Used thin layers of Permatex anaerobic gasket maker for gasket dressing on both sides of both gaskets (water pump to backing plate & backing plate to timing cover.

24 hours curing and i'm gonna fill it. Changed the oil too, jic. Changed thermostat cause everything was drained. This job was because the water pump weep holes were rivers. No overheating conditions.

What a **** job. I have removed, rebuilt and reinstalled transfer cases in less time. I've removed and installed axles in less time. Guaranteed next time will be faster, which i might have to do. Never know if it's gonna leak. I will say, unbolting alt/smog and steering/ac brackets and swinging them to the side is a nice feature of Ford big blocks.

 

Is that normally a fusible link?

Any other wiring upgrades? PDC lead? Grounds?

 

What's your symptoms?

 

Ordered Sway bar bushings and fuel filter for my "other" girl as my wife puts it LOL.

 

Update: thermostat housing is leaking at the flange. Got a fel-pro permadry. Garbage. Tried going up incrementally in torque to 32ft-lbs. Still leaking. I’ll be getting normal paper gasket in the AM. Also, lower water pump return/bypass hose was not tight enough. I think I may have put it on backwards. Needs another few mm on the water pump end to be fully on. Shouldn’t matter. Tightening the worm clamp seemed to fix it. May drain the coolant and play with it a touch.

Good news, below thermostat, coolant passage area looks brand new. When I had gotten the truck, I did a flush and it was in superb condition. Even the heater core flushed pretty clear.

 

Replaced the headlight/dimmer switch - the electrical connector was brittle and broke when disconnecting, so had to replace that too. It's been a while since I had to solder anything, but I feel like a pro now.
New Switch
New and Old Connector
All buttoned up soldered and shrink wrapped.

 

Laggy...
Yes on old harness it is.

 

And did you accompany that 4ga with any other wiring upgrades?

 

At this point no.
When it warms up,probably.

 

i SPENT THE DAY APOLOGIZING TO MY NEW 89 F150 FOR MY WIFE SAYING SHE HOPED I DID NOT PAY MORE THAN 50 BUCKS FOR IT. i WILL POST SOME BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES. i HPOPE HER MERCEDES GIVES HER SOMETHING FOR V-DAY BECAUSE MY 89 AND I SURE WONT

 

Thanks for the tip. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to doing it. My truck is a small block so I've got a little more room, but it's not looking like a fun job. I'm hoping I can get away without dropping the oil pan or damaging the timing cover.

 

Hopefully your truck didn’t see too much neglect, else the job probably isn’t that bad. Steering and AC bracket is 4 bolts and a nut over a water pump stud. That bracket swings out of the way. Same with alternator and smog pump bracket, except I actually removed my alternator. I don’t know how different the setup is on a small block. My bolts were fine, but it’s an AZ truck. Since some of the bolts go thru to water jacket, I’d assume the condition of cooling system could clue you in to how tough it’s gonna be. On a 460, only 4 bolts thread in to timing cover. The rest pass through. Be sure to rtv the engaged threads of bolts on reassembly. I did all of them cause I didn’t know which ones went into water jackets. Drain your oil, too.

Good luck man!

 

I changed my engine oil, and closed the hood on the wrench I used, jamming the hood release, real happy with myself. Have not explored it yet, need a 2nd hand (not my wife) to give me some down force on the hood so I can hopefully release the front safety......

 

Well I got started on it today. Only one bolt snapped and I was able to get the remaining stud removed pretty easily. The timing cover has a small crack in it so I'm just gonna replace it. My main concern now is how I'm gonna get the oil pan to seal against the timing cover without dropping the pan and changing the gasket. I think I'm gonna clean the remains of the steel cored rubber oil pan gasket up, coat it liberally with RTV and put it back together.