How do you replace a water pump in a 1994 Ford Ranger?

Answer 1

O.K., I just did this repair on my truck so I hope this will help someone because it was a bear for me to replace.

1. Drain your coolant. 2. Loosen the fan shroud and let it hang. 3. Remove the cooling fan. This step is not so easy. You need to buy a tool set to remove this. It's only about 15 bucks for a wrench and a tool to hold the pulley. Remember that this fan removes from the pulley in a clockwise turn (opposite from the usual way to release a bolt). It's o.k. if you dont get it off, you can just move on but it is in the way. 4. Next, remove the belt (pull down on the belt tensioner and it comes right off. 5. Remove the alternator, don't have to disconnect the electrical just unbolt. 6. Remove the alternator mount. 3 bolts all up front. 7. Now here's the hard part. There is one bolt on the water pump which cannot be removed without loosening the aircompressor/power steering pump mount. So to loosen the mount, you need to remove the belt tensioner. You have to have a star bit set to remove the one bolt in the middle and it will come right off. There are 5 bolts on the mount: two on the driver's side and three up front. The two on the side are obvious. The three on front are a little hard to find, but the two hidden bolts are in the area behind where the belt tensioner was at. you dont have to disconnect the air compresor, just set the whole mount with the compressor and steering pump to the side. 8. Remove all hoses from water pump. 9. Remove the water pump and clean the engine surface to remove all remaining pieces of the old gasket. 10. Install new gasket with rpv sealant and install new water pump.

There are some differences if the vehicle is a 1994 Ford Ranger with a 2.3L SOHC engine:

1) Drain coolant (save if clear or dispose of responsibly)

2) Loosen the fan shroud and hang it on the fan

3) Undo the 4 bolts that hold the fan onto the pulley (a ratcheting end wrench will help greatly)

4) Remove the fan and the shroud

5) Remove or at least loosen and push aside the timing belt cover.

If you remove the timing cover you must free up the electrical cables that run in front of it, remove the serpentine idler and the thermostat housing (be careful the thermostat is inside the housing) and the crank pulley (just remove the 4 bolts and tap it off). The cover will need to be moved up, toward the center, and then down and out - a lot of fussing that might not be absolutely necessary - phew! I removed all this because I didn't know there is also a hole in the bottom of the shaft collar were two holes in the water pump

Since you have gone to all this trouble you may want to inspect and perhaps replace the thermostat (you'll need a new thermostat gasket regardless) and the timing belt too.

6) Remove the water pump: There are 3 ea 15 mm bolts. The one at 6 O'clock is the short one ( approx 1-3/4") while the other two (10 & 2 O'clock) are approx 2" long. (Length measured from base of head to tip of thread)

7) Wiggle out the pump.

8) Clean the gasket seat(s)(scrape and then clean with acetone or similiar).

9) Install a new gasket(s) with rpv sealant and install the new pump (put new sealant on the bolt threads) and perform steps 1-5 in reverse order.