Faded

Long story short, the water pump on my '90 4-Runner decided to take a duke on the freeway @ 3:30am about 50 miles from home. Due to the below zero temps I was able to nurse it off the freeway and into a gas station from where I later towed it back.

My question is does anyone have any links, tips or helpful hints on replacing the water pump on the 3.slow V6? I did a search and came up w/ this:

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/v6tbelt/index.html

Seems the general consensus is that it really BLOWS and you'll need more parts then you thought. For now I have the water pump on order and I haven't quite torn into it yet. Any input is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Thank you,
Andrew

eric-the-red

That looks like what needs to be done. I didn't really find it very hard to do once I got going. Probably the most difficult thing was getting the bolt off the crank pulley. I needed an impact wrench for that.

Definitely replace the upper idler pulley if there is any sign of roughness in the bearings, or even better replace it anyway. Also put a new timing belt on. No point on doing the work again when that needs replaced. I didn't do the seals, but they are cheap to buy so if there is any sign of leakage I would replace them.

Good luck.

Faded

Eric,

Thanks for the input. Should I remove the radiator? Anything else that might make life easier down the road? Thanks again for your thoughts.

eric-the-red

Yes, remove the rad, and the grill. It's a lot easier than scraping your knuckles on the fins.

Faded

Sounds like a plan, thanks!

Arsrmk

I just got done replacing my water pump, timing belt, and upper idler pulley a few days ago. I was a little worried about it but once I torn into it, it wasn't too bad at all. The crank bolt wasn't all that bad either. I would throw on some new belts while your taking things out, put all new on mine, and it seemed to quiet it down a bit. Can't really think of anything else to help you out except getting the radiator out of the way, and keeping track of how everything came apart, pretty straight forward. I didn't remove my grill, shouldn't have to. There is quite a bit of info on here if you search. Good luck, have fun.

Faded

Thanks, and yea right! Thanks for the positive feedback. Hopefully I'll get to tear into it tonight. Thanks Eric and Arsrmk for your comments.

gwhayduke

I replaced mine a couple of years back. Get yourself some ziplock bags and a permanent marker. When you take a component off, put all the bolts, nuts and washers in a bag and mark where it came from. Plan on replacing both idlers...it's easier now than later. Take your time and be meticulous about lining up your timing marks...toyota timing belts work best...You'll love it when it fires up the first time.

Faded

Okay, so I am taking my sweet time with this one. It turns out the water pump is fine (and resonably new, verified by reciepe from previous owner) so I'm going to leave it alone. I have it all tore apart with one exception. I cannot get the crank pulley bolt out! I've used some of the baddest Snap-On 1/2 drive impacts and they don't even phase it. It's not LH thread is it?

Anyway, the problem is the carrier bracket for the cooling fan...it puked the bearings that support the cooling fan shaft and the idler pulleys for the PS and alternator. Since I have it apart this far I'm thinking I'll go the Taurus electric fan route. The bearings took pieces out of the timing belt so I'm going to still need to replace that. I'm still waiting on some of the parts but I need to get this thing apart.

Thanks for the posts,
Andrew

eric-the-red

The crank pulley bolt is a normal thread, it's just tight. Also if someone replaced the water pump already they may have used Loctite on it. When I did mine it took about an hour with the impact wrench, not continuously, but maybe 1-2 minutes on with a few minutes to cool down in between tries. I've also heard it can be done with a long breaker bar braced against the frame rail and using the starter to bump the engine.

Good luck, ( and wear ear plugs)

Faded

I spent a good hour with the impact on mine yesterday. I'd wait for the compressor to build and then hammer away. It still wouldn't move, but I'm going to get it off some how.


WOW, this probably isn't the recommend procedure, is it? If you use this method, are you still able to turn the motor over to line the timing marks up? Also, the earplugs...are they required to mask the sound of breaking parts?

eric-the-red

That and the crying/swearing sounds you'll make when those parts break

Arsrmk

I just used a 2 ft breaker bar and had my girlfriend hold the pulley with a 2 ft long chain wrench with about a 2 ft pipe on the end. It was tight but came loose with a good hard pull. I would say go this route, just get a longer pipe if it won't break loose.

95_4X4Runner

Flame suit on....

I have removed several tight-as-hell crank pulley belts by using a 1/2" breaker bar and quickly bumping the starter, thus whacking the breaker bar on the ground or frame and breaking it loose. (Have someone verify the direction of rotation when the starter is bumped) Most recently, I did it for my neighbor who was trying to get that bolt loose on his Saturn, it worked, but took like 5 bumps to get it.

Most of all, if you try this, BE CAREFUL. But, it does work. I used to try the largest impact wrench the military auto-hobby shop had, with the air pressure cranked up, and it never worked.

Flame suit off....

Another note: when done, get the crankshaft bolt as tight as possible, because they've been known to loosen up and chew up the keyway on the crankshaft which means big $$.

Another thing I learned to do is when the new timing belt is installed, go ahead and manually rotate the engine through a couple complete revolutions (with a ratchet on the crank pulley) to ensure that the timing marks are lined up correctly.

gwhayduke

I used that technique with my old Corolla when I replaced the belt. Yes it does work. It can cost you some teeth on the flywheel if it doesn't though. It's a last resort. Gotta love that DC motor torque.

Faded

Thank you for the replies. I actually tried it last night but broke two sockets in the process. The were semi-cheap spares that I had so I didn't mind, but now I know I'll need a quality socket. I should have used a good one in the first place, but figured 'what the hell'.

I'll be sure to give it a couple of rotations to make sure everything lines up correctly. That was on the list of things 'to do', but thank you for the reminder.

I also am thinking about putting a little twist on the fan/weight removal idea, I'd be interested in anyones comments. I talked with Gadget a while back about a guy he knew that removed the idler pulleys on the fan shaft on his 5VZE. I was looking at mine last night and I think I'm going to try the same. There is only one offending stud that is used to fasten the fan bracket on. Since the fan bracket is basically shot and will now assume the roll of being only a timing belt guard I'm thinking I'll remove the stud and then machining the face off of the fan support bracket to clear the P/S and alternator belts. This along with some new, properly sized belts should help eliminate even more weight (not really that much) and parasitic drag by having the two belts go directly from the crank pulleys to thier repected accesories. Wadda think?

Thanks again for the helpful comments.

-Andrew

95_4X4Runner

I'm not sure if I understand what you're talking about, but is it you want to go to an electric fan, then bypass the existing fan pulley? I would not recommend that, because that fan pulley is what rotates the impeller for the water pump, and it'll probably get a little warm...if I didn't understand, let me know more.

Faded

Yes, I plan on installing an electric fan. Just FYI, this is the V6 we're talking about. There is a bracket bolted to the front of the motor that houses a couple of bearings. The cooling fan (and idler pulleys for the P/S and alternator) are connected to a shaft that rides in the bearings in the bracket. Since my bearings exploded the fan, fan shaft, and idler pulleys were rendered useless. The water pump is turned by the timing belt. I'll see if I can't get some pictures tonight to better illustrate.

Faded

BTW, I just read your mods....I'm interested in the 100A MR2 alternator as well, but I'm wondering what you did for the lower bracket?? The write-up I saw the lower bracket looked kind of...um...chinzy.

Faded

I have pics, but no way to host them so I can link them to the post. Anyone know who/where I can get some help with this?

Also, do any of you know if our crank pulleys have a built in harmonic balancer? I have found a company that is willing to make lighter weight underdrive pulleys (so far crank and possibly power steering and/or others...still ironing out the details) but I've heard bad things about the lighter weight pulley's replacing harmonic balancer type OE crank pulleys. If you have any info I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Andrew