The water pump belt on my 86 GLX Magna is torn, and looks about to break. How do I replace it please?

I read the relevant posts I could find in this forum, but having removed the cover, then loosened/removed the 4 long bolts in adjustable slots, the pump does not want to move. I tried some gentle tapping, but it seems stuck-fast. How do I get the pump to rotate without breaking something please?

thanks in anticipation,
jb

probably better off asking in the first gen forums but you do have the general idea. try something like wd-40 on the bolts to see if the rail will loosen up, but i think there are about 3 bolts that hold it in place, shouldnt be very hard to move. make sure that when you tighten the belt it has about 5mm levy when you firmly press on it with your finger

yea a 1st gen question for sure. sometime they tend to stick a bit. just get a long screwdriver and put it between 2 of the bolts places (hard to explain) and use it as a lever. gently push back and forth till it moves , don't need it move much. when u retiontion it have between 4-9mm of deflection in the middle with finger pressure. then run the engine for 5 mins nd recheck the tention to be sure it stays at that. it you put to much tention then the bearing will where out too early.

oh and check your o-ring to see if it needs replacing too.

best way is to undo the cam shaft nut holding the pully

or cut the old belt the undo the pully

if the water pump is old it may leak after it is moved during the adjustment


:nuts: I had onepump so badly corroded I had to use
a mallet and screwdriver or timber and break the pump off at the block
in pieces then clear the block out what was left of the water pump :nuts:

Thanks for the suggestions people, and thanks to who ever moved my post to the correct forum:)

Are there any likely pit-falls in replacing the belt by removing the cam pulley? You would be relying on the belt tension being 'about right' when you put it back, as you wouldn't get to move the pump to adjust it. Also, is the cam pulley nut difficult to remove? Do you need a torque wrench to put it back OK?

The easiest way to move it is to loosen the large (12mm I think) bolts on the pump, not much, just enough so that the pump can be moved. You can then rotate the pump around a little - enough so the belt can be removed. Since you are saying it is jammed, you may need to remove them a little more and pull/twist the pump at the same time.

Put the new belt on and tension it as much as you can. Tighten the bolts a bit, but not fully just yet - but enough to hold it in place with a bit of tension on the belt. Check the tension of the belt, and at the longest run of the belt if you push in the belt at the centre with your finger, there should be a slack of about 1cm maximum. If not, get a piece of wood and a rubber mallet and gently tap the side of the pump until the belt tension is right, then tighten the bolts properly.

During this process (depending on the age of the gasket), you might find some coolant leaking around the water pump gasket. Don't be too alarmed, but if it starts leaking dramatically just after slightly loosening the bolts, I would recommend getting a new gasket or even a new pump (which comes with gasket). If the pump is seriously as jammed in as you say, I would just get a new pump. They aren't very expensive and do come with new O-rings too.

Also as a final consideration, the plastic cover over the top of the pulley - make sure when you put it back you don't overtighten the bolt onto the back of the rocker cover as it snaps off the corner of the cover really easily (i've experienced it!)

so what happened?? (bugs me when ppl look for advice but don't post back on how they went:D )

did u get the pump off?

I only get to work on the car on the weekend.

So far nothing has changed - old belt, with a tear and bit missing, is still working. Have taken to driving with a pair of gf's old tights in glove box, in the hope that I can 'get home' with an emergency fix if it breaks en route somewhere. Does anybody know if this will work?

Will try some 'levering' tomorrow, but if I have no joy will probably try taking the camshaft pulley off. I think this is what the garage did last time, cause I don't think the pump has moved in a while:-(

Will post progress ...

wasn't having a go at u , just wanted to hear how you went.

hmmm good luck with the panty hose, never tried it so can't say if it works or not.
Personally i wouldn't cut the wheel. id just use a breaker bar with an extention for extra leverage and maybe another mate to help u lever it at the same time. just go to the wreckers and get a spare one, then go to town on the stuck one.
i would soak it in wd-40 for a hour or 2 then try a large screwdriver, then if no luck id move on to a breaker bar, still no go then get a mate to pull with ya on it at the same time. then if that dosen't work id think about a drift (bit of wood\or a lump of lead )and one of those handheld sledge hammers ( the small but heavy ones).

hope u can get it off. i know it must be frustrating. a month ago i changed the brake master , now one of the fittings were stuck solid:rant: :rant: so after using the right ring spanner i managed to round it completly:rant: :nuts: :rant: . so out with the plumbers monkey wrench and it finnally came off.
so keep at it and im sure u'll get it in the end.

The old belt is off, and new Japanese 'Bando' (10A 0545) is fitted. Took about an hour on Sunday morning.

Finally got the pump to move with some firm 'engineering taps' via a piece of wood (= drift?).

Loosened the four bolts, then hammered the pump away from the block. Had to hit reasonably hard and the pump moved bit by bit 'till it was maybe 5mm off the block. Didn't hammer on the actual circular pump bit, but rather in a bottom corner casting near a bolt guide. Then had to tap along the frontmost rail to get it to rotate enough to get the old, torn belt off ( a Bosch 11A 0545? ). At no time did the pump want to move freely.

New belt ( gotta love the 'Bando' name:-) seemed a fair bit smaller than the old one and wasn't easy to get on. Got it fitted by getting it mostly on, then turning the cam shaft pulley with a spanner.

Once belt was on, pump didn't need further adjusting to get the tension right as it had maybe 5 or 6mm of play as it was. It's now significantly more rotated than it was with the old belt. Have driven maybe 40kms since fitting and all appears well. Will keep checking it for a while though:-)

Glad I didn't take the cam shaft pulley off as I don't think the Bando would have fitted without having to rotate the pump anyway. The bloke in AutoPro had looked up the belt size on his computer and determined it should be a 10A 0545, then declared that they didn't have any that size and I should use an 11A, which was the size of the old belt. When looking up the price he discovered that they did have some 10As in stock and that's what I bought ($10).

Originally expected that changing the belt was going to be much easier that in turned out to be! Thankful for all the advice which gave me the confidence to keep trying, and I am quite likley to have overtightened the cover nut and cracked the rover cover, but for the warning:-)