Yes the water pump went out in the Jeep.

Yes I fixed it myself.

Yes I took Pictures.

Yes I intend to write about it

No, I haven’t had time 🙂

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Prelude: Wednesday 051612

The ZombieWRANGLER was in time out for 5 days – it peed on the parking lot at the Rangers game Tues night.  It was a kinda funny story, we noticed the river of green as we were walking back to parking lot after the afternoon game, and we laughed and joked about “some poor bastard with a leaky radiator”, until we’d followed the river right up to my JEEP,  Then it wasn’t funny anymore.  Filled the radiator back up with half-empty bottles of water and cups of melted ice from the parking lot and it was only a slow drip, so I resolved to stop a couple times and check it on the way home (careful – HOT STEAM) and made it there without incident.

Don’t know if it’s just a coolant hose, or water pump bad, or what.  I haven’t been able to shake off work, Boy scouts, little league, and picking up other slack for the X for one minute of daylight since the minor league KC Royals hammered us Monday (& Tues so I hear)…   Pricing it at AutoZone, looks like the entire cooling system can be replaced for around $100 ( water pump, hoses, thermostat, gaskets…as long as it not the radiator) and I am mechanically inclined enough to tackle it….only problem is there is literally only a 1030-2p window on Sat that I am not already booked when I can work on it……

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Conclusion: Sunday 052012

After about 10 hours of labor and learning – I am proud to report problem diagnosed, Parts purchased, and Water Pump replaced.  The ZombieWrangler is back on the road, green zombie juice leak free.  The inside of the pump housing had rusted through and there was a tiny hole about 1/16 in diameter on the outside by the heater hose – right on the stamped serial number.  So pulled the fan cowling out, the radiator-out, the fan off, and then was finally able to get to the butternut squash sized water pump – all while mumbling to myself “it shouldn’t be this complicated”.

I had heck of a time getting to everything with my giant meat hook hands, especially hard to unbolt the fan because it’s on a clutch that free-spins – note to other moonlight mechanics, works better if you do it before you take the belt off.  Also a note for the MOPAR man – the bracket that attaches water pump to the power steering pump is a pain-in-the-Azz.  It needn’t be that tough – there cant’ be that much torque in a coke-can sized hydraulic pump.

In other news, the hoses looked to be in are in great shape – cut in a flush T and washed it all out, and there was hardly any sediments  inside.   Even the spring coils inside the hoses are only minimally corroded.  Radiator is good, was real gentle not to bang up that plastic bottom, got some cautionary advice about that being a potential hazard.  Probably some other things I could have done while in there, but I only had a small window of opportunity, and I’m and still a rookie mechanic.

Thanks to all the guys at  http://www.dfw-tx4wd.org  for the advice, encouragement, and the link to the photo tutorials for water pump replacement at STU OLSEN’s JEEP SITE – http://stu-offroad.com/index.asp,  saved me more than half of my normal allotment of cursing, and I only busted one knuckle and lost a small amount of blood.  Jeep christened…..

O and thank you jeebus for the invention of the air ratchet….

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