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Coolant leak. Water pump??


b2tamer

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Well guys Im having a bit of a problem, my Bronco ii is leaking coolant, but its just a drip, and its coming from around the water pump area. Its just a drip, I don't hear the water pump whining or anything like that. So if a water pump goes bad does it just drip or does it run out? Maybe its just radiator hoses?

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adsm08

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Sometimes it drips, sometimes it runs out. Sometimes it is just the gasket. There is also a weep hole that you can't see because the pulley is in the way.

I'd get the pulley off and take a better look.
 

Tedybear

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Along with that? Give your upper hose connections a good look, as well the thermo housing. Ours has a slow leak at the hose to housing. We've replaced the hose and housing 3 times. (Cheap china crap steel). It has a very slow drip that can be mistaken for the water pump.

If you can't see anything from that "goose neck" and hose? I'd pull the pulley as suggested. It should be interesting to see how loose the pump gets when it's not under any belt load. I've had them go bad--the pump seems good and solid. Pull the belts off if? And it's just floppy.

S-
 

adsm08

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I've had them go bad--the pump seems good and solid. Pull the belts off if? And it's just floppy.

S-
That too. Saw one that looked good but was noisy, took it off to replace and found the shaft had eaten halfway through the housing, moved about an inch either way.
 

b2tamer

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Do you think it would be a good idea just to go ahead and replace the water pump, thermostat and the radiator hoses, since I know its leaking from somewhere, and as far as I know its all still original parts

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Tedybear

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Do you think it would be a good idea just to go ahead and replace the water pump, thermostat and the radiator hoses, since I know its leaking from somewhere, and as far as I know its all still original parts

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Honestly if the thermostat is original? Wow!

I'm not a huge fan of just switching out parts just because... But in this case? Radiator hoses are a maintain item...as well the thermostat. The housing that encases the thermostat? Just replace it as well. (get one from Ford if possible...the aftermarket ones are crappy IMO)

The water pump? That can either go sweet....or be a pain. I'd still pull the belts and pulley off and check first. Last thing you need? Is to have a bolt snap.

S-
 

b2tamer

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Yeah I'm going to crawl underneath it tomorrow and hopefully if I get lucky I could find a bad hose or something. But if it ends up being the water pump, do bolts usually break when taking them out? And how hard is it to replace a water pump?

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Tedybear

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Yeah I'm going to crawl underneath it tomorrow and hopefully if I get lucky I could find a bad hose or something. But if it ends up being the water pump, do bolts usually break when taking them out? And how hard is it to replace a water pump?

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Pick up a shop manual...and a torque wrench. Can or two of PB blaster won't hurt. Take your time.

Best advice I can give. You want the shop manual for all your torque specs...a quality torque wrench so you do not break bolts during install, or over tighten and distort things.... And PB blaster helps with rusty bolts and such.

S-
 

b2tamer

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Okay thanks a lot. I will start looking into it tomorrow, I'm low on money right now so it might be a little bit before I fix it. Good thing I have a second vehicle to drive. But I will let you guys know the outcome.

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b2tamer

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Which side of the water pump is the weep hole on? The passenger or drivers side.

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adsm08

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Usually pretty close to the middle.
 

b2tamer

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Okay, well getting confused now, I started it up today and te radiator was still pretty full, I topped it off and drove it til it was warmed up, went home and I shut it off. It seems to be leaking from around the water pump and the bottom hose is old and brittle and there was fluid on the under side of the hose, then it started to have a steady drip from Idk where. Will the water pump leak with the engine off?

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b2tamer

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How hard is it to change a water pump on this? Like is there anything I should really worry about, like breaking bolts or anything like that?

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Twister

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How hard is it to change a water pump on this? Like is there anything I should really worry about, like breaking bolts or anything like that?

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Changing the water pump on your truck should be fairly simple. About the hardest part is remvoing the fan clutch and fan. You will also need to drain the coolant. If you drain it in a nice clean container and it looks good you could prolly get away with reusing it. When I did the one on my 2.8 I didn't break any bolts.

Just take your time make sure all surfaces where a gasket goes is clean.

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b2tamer

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Okay. Do I need to use some kind of gasket maker?

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Twister

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I used rtv when i put mine back together.
 

aspevacek

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When I assemble anything I generally put gaskets on DRY. If I do use anything it would be ultra grey but put on so think and rubbed into the gasket that it is see through. There are locations that require silicon and I will use it as you are supposed to in those locations. There is nothing worse then goin gin to do a job on something someone that was silicon happy was into first. Think about the fact if there is another issue down the road and you have to go back in that area you may have to clean up the mess the silicon left behind.

Silicon and sealants are just there to fill in imperfections in the gasket mating surfaces.
 

eversmile

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Replacing the water pump is not too tough. The trickiest part for me was figuring out how to get the belts off and to get the fan off the water pump. It is reverse thread. As far as the belts go, I loosed more bolts that necessary but it worked out. For the fan clutch i used a big crescent wrench. I ended up loosening the 4 water pump bolts (holding the fan) and shoved a long screw driver in to give me some leverage to keep the thing from turning while trying to remove the fan. You will have to drain the antifreeze and there is a lot more in there than you think. Maybe 2 gallons? Drain out of the radiator, disconnect hoses, remove fan and fan shroud and you will have the room you need. I didn't pull the radiator but it will give more room if you do. I have a haynes book but it not as detailed as I would like. The water pump has like 10 or 12 screws holding it in place and I believe they are 10 mm. I think a couple of them are shorter than the rest so pay attention to that. I bought a rebuilt one from oreilly for like 25 bucks.
 

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