what to do? water pump and belt help please

[SRlew]

right then iv got this week off work to get my car sorted, need the water pump doing and a new belt fitted, I was going to do the water pump myself and then get a garage to fit the belt etc as I'm not confident enough to do the belt as if it goes wrong it's bad lol

basically is it hard to do the water pump? easy to get to etc when doing it?
looked in haynes and recon I can do it aslong as I don't have to take pulleys off etc, garage just said a maximum of ?200 including parts. I realy need to do it as cheap as possible as I want to insure mot and tax the car this week lol.

what you think I should do? try and do the pump myself? how long does it usualy take? whats the best way to get the belt off? it's a 1400 8v by the way

any help appreciated! lewis

[SRlew]

well i rang up partco about a water pump, they'v got one in stock so i could get that today and make a start today.

[Adam]

You could do the belt and pump yourself easily, the parts are about ?30, so i'd put a middle finger up to a garage quote of ?200,Lol.

Anyway:
-Take the top cambelt cover off
-Turn the engine clockwise with the crank pulley bolt until the mark on the crank pulley lines up with the one on the bottom belt cover, and the one of the cam sprocket lines with the on on its rear cover(should be straight up, 12 0' clock)
-Undo and remove the alternator belt.
-Put the car in gear(4th), you will now need undo the crank pulley bolt(17mm iirc) it is quite tight, and you will have to take up some "slack" in the transmission before the belts tight. Undo the bolt with a long breaker bar and remove the crank pulley
-Undo the 3 5mm(iirc) allen key bolts holding the pump, these may be seized solid so try and not round them off.
-Once the bolts are undone, get a big spanner/pair of grips and turn the pump, it will take the tension off the belt.
-Slip the belt off and dont move either cam or crank sprocket/pulleys
-Now using the pump sprocket shake the pump about,Lol, to try and loosen it, if its not too old it should start to move quite easily(it just pulls straight out)
-If its stuck and wont move i usually give the sprocket a few hits with a hammer, side to side.

-Once its out get the new pump, put some grease over the sealing ring and put the pump into position, refit the 3 bolts just enough to stop the pump falling out.
-Slip the new belt over the crank sprocket(making sure its small arrow is pointing to the mark on the bottom rear cover), over the water pump sprocket, and over the cam sprocket(again make sure the marks still aligned)
-Then turn the pump one way or the other till it starts to put tension on the belt, you want it so you can turn the belt 90deg between the cam sprocket and the crank sprocket
-Once you have that tighten the waterpump bolts.
-Refit the crank pulley(it sits in a notch), torque up the crank bolt

Refit cambelt covers etc, reversal of removal lol

Think that pretty much covers it, i probably made it sound difficult tho, its quite straight forward. Haynes covers it quite well.
I also assumed your engine doesn't have a cambelt tensioner roller fitted.

Make sure you get the right length belt, round tooth, shorter version(104 tooth iirc)

[SRlew]

right so is that the belt i need ad? 104tooth?

right im going to give it a bash then. i just been out to have a look and i carnt see a tensioner.

can i do it in a day? lol never done it before obviously

when i take the crank pulley of (thats the one the alt belts fitted to right?) will the other pulley's move? or is that why its in 4th gear?

if the pulleys do move so the marks arnt lined up do i just get tham at the right point again and then put the belt on?

thats the job for tomorrow as iv got an interview at 3pm today so carnt realy start it now.

[Adam]

If the crank/cam sprocket moves slightly when undoing the crank pulley, just put the pully back on the crank sprocket and turn it(by hand) without the bolt in to turn it back for the marks to line up.

Yeah it can be done in a day quite easily.

Im pretty sure the shorter belt is 104tooth, longer is 110/111 tooth.
Just ask for the belt to a late 1989/early 1990 1400.
Tensioners were fitted from about late '91.

[SRlew]

weres the 3rd allen key bolt for the pump, theres 2 you can see then i carn find the 3rd. quick ad before it goes dark lol

[SRlew]

f**kin hell its gone t*ts up! already! to undo the allen bolts i had an attachment on an rachet, anywho i was putting it on the bottom one once id found it and it slipped and if now behind the plastic cover, and i carnt get it out lol, any way i can get it out. or is it easier to go and buy a new attachment bit tomorrow?

lol

[mikey14sr]

take the rear cover off and find it, if you leave it and start it up chances are it'll catch on the new belt and rip it to shreads.

[SRlew]

how does the rear cover come off?

[mikey14sr]

Is it a plastic or metal one? for the plastic one you have to pull the bottom cam belt pully off the crankshaft first, then undo a few bolts, which ofr the plastic covers tend to be of the torx variety. If it's a metal one there's just a few 13mm bolts holding it on.

[Adam]

It will be a plastic cover probably.
Held with 10mm bolts.

The 3rd allen key is hidden inside a little hole in the cover.

[SRlew]

yeh its the plastic one, i did see a few star bolts actually. and the bit attach them to is the bit thats stuck for f**k sake! looks like i'll have to go buy another aswell. not happy i done that as its setting me back a while now!

cheers chaps

[SRlew]

right f**k it!!
looks like im paying the garage a stupid amount cus i just carnt handle any more anger with this f**kin car

carnt get the crank pulley undone, like theres not enough room to even get it to the point where the pressure is on the nut!!

[Adam]

You need a 90deg breaker bar, mine just about fits up to the top side of the engine bay(by the side of the engine) so you can get a good leverage on it.