[AT] More on the water pump

[Jim & Lyn Evans]

There are a lot of secrets and unintuitive items to working on the new cars
but they are a piece of cake once you figure it out.  Like unbolting the
engine mounts on the Chevy V6 front wheel drive cars and rolling the engine
forward to access the back plugs.  Removing the boxes on pickups is also
pretty easy if the bolts are not rusted.  8 bolts, 20 minutes, and 3 guys to
pick it up and you have full access to the fuel pump.   Unfortunately, it
would take me 2 hours to clean the junk out of the bed on my truck in order
to even find the bolts. 


> 

Ralph, Those plugs are a piece of cake IF you know the secret. For all
of them but the one in #5 (behind the steering shaft) you go in through
the wheel wells. You will want a captive swivel style 5/8 plug wrench.
For the one behind the shaft the "factory" method is to remove the
shaft. OR you grab a standard plug socket with hex flats on the shell
and a box end that fits those flats.

The fuel pumps can be a PIA, BUT one thing to make sure of, DO NOT use
just any old cheap aftermarket unit to replace them. Many of the lower
priced units will fail VERY shortly. Also make sure you replace the
connector pigtail when you replace the pump. They are a major cause of
pump failure as well.

GM at least located the pump where you can get at it to replace it. Ford
stuck theirs up under the cab so you have to drop the tank.
Oh and if you think that lifting the box is bad don't buy ANY of the new
Ford Super Duty trucks. The repair procedures for most of the engine and
trans repairs start with, Disconnect the wiring harness from the
connector, remove the retainer pins and remove the entire cab from the
vehicle!!!

One thing that many people don't know is that these pumps also use the
gas that goes through them to cool the motor windings. The earlier ones
didn't tolerate low fuel levels very well and running them out of gas
severely shortens the life of the pump. The units from about 96 and up
use a fuel pump module, it is the same type of pump but it has a shell
around it that holds fuel around the pump so that low fuel doesn't cause
the problems it did before.

-- 
Steve W.
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