Ford Escort GT

THIS IS DETAILED for 1.8l DOHC

OK. I recently replaced the water pump on my 91 Escort GT and having never done one, i spent endless hours searching online for answers pin pointing the problems i ran into, making it very frustrating, and never found ANYTHING that was exactly the problem i was encountering. So if you are a novice DIY kind of person but have never tackled this before, i sure hope this helps you because i sure wish i could have had the detailed steps accessible w/o spending money on a Haynes or Chilton.

You will need a variety of tools to make the job simple:

Air Compressor capable of 150psi and impact gun capable 300+ft.lbs trq

1/4" drive ratchet and extensions short and long. 3/4" drive breaker bar

Pry bar

Sockets in metric 10,12,14,17,22

5/8 Spark plug socket

Open and closed ended wrenches in metric 10,12,14

Torque wrench that goes as low as 27-38 ft. lbs

At least 1-1/2 ton capable jack and jack stand/s

Pliers and/or Vice Grips

Telescopic mechanics mirror and magnet

Yellow fine tip Paint pen

Heres where you need to start:

Disconnect the battery

If it is a manual or auto transmission, put it in neutral, set the E-brake and place tire chalks behind the rear tires.

Jack up front passenger side of vehicle and place on Jack stand

Remove front passenger tire and plastic splash shielding from inner wheel well and across front bottom of vehicle

Drain coolant by loosening drain plug on bottom corner of the Radiator on the drivers side of vehicle. Make sure you have a deep enough drain pan and DO NOT do it if the car is still hot. When done draining, tighten plug back up.

Pull off the #1 cylinder spark plug wire and spark plug. This is the one closest to the cam gears.

Using the breaker bar and the 22mm socket, turn the motor over by hand at the crankshaft bolt rotating clockwise until #1 cylinder is at the top of its compression stoke, or until the notch in the crank pulley is at TDC (Top Dead Center). You can use the telescopic mirror to see the timing marks while turning over the motor. The long mark that lines up with the top of the sideways T indicates TDC.

Once you get it to TDC, begin to remove the upper timing cover off, which should be four 10mm bolts. Now some people say to remove the motor mount on the passenger side of the motor, which does make it much easier, but i did it with out doing so.

Loosen the three bolts holding the water pump pulley on, but don't pull them all the way out, just break them loose.

When looking down at the power steering pump from above, there are two 14mm bolt heads that look like they both act as pivoting points for the power steering pump, behind the pulley. Loosen the one to the left. Now crawl under car and using 17mm socket, loosen the adjusting nut right in between the power steering pump and AC pump. Then use the 12mm socket to back off the fine tuning adjusting bolt that threads through the back of the 17mm nut & bolt. Adjust power steering pump enough to get the serpentine belt off. If you plan on re-using the belts, make sure to mark the direction of rotation so you put them on the same way.

Using the 14mm socket and ratchet, crawl under vehicle and find the bottom Alternator bolt and break it loose, then loosen the top adjuster bolt and use the pry bar to release the tension on the alternator belt, removing belt.

Now that you have both serpentine belt and V belt off, you can finish removing the water pump pulley.

Once done removing water pump pulley, you can remove the crankshaft pulley. Using the breaker bar and 22mm socket again, keep tension on the crankshaft while breaking loose the four 10mm bolts surrounding the center crank bolt.

Make sure the crank is still at TDC. If it moved counter clockwise a few degrees, that's fine, just turn it back clockwise to TDC. If moved clockwise past TDC, use the breaker bar and crank it around one full revolution back to TDC.

Now you can get that Impact gun out and break loose that 22mm bolt. Once that's off, pull the crankshaft pulley and the timing belt inner guide plate. When you get it off, you can finish removing the middle and lower half of the timing cover.

Now that all the covers are off and the crankshaft pulley is out of the way, you should have a clear view of the water pump and timing belt pulleys. Using the 14mm socket, break loose the timing belt tensioning pulley which would be the one on the left. Make sure that on the camshaft gears, the timing notches line up with the arrows in the back shielding behind the cam gears, and that the "I" on the cam gear on the firewall side of the engine, and the "E" on the other cam gear also are pointing straight up and lined with the arrows. If you encounter what i encountered, instead of the "I" and "E" lining up with the timing arrows, you see an "I" and "I", just leave it, chances are Ford put the Exhaust cam gear on wrong.

Using a paint pen, mark on the timing belt on both cam sprockets the timing notches, and crank gear, the placement of the timing belt, ensuring correct replacement of timing belt if you are to reuse it. It would be wise to Replace the timing belt however since you are removing it anyways. Once done marking placement of the belt, Using the but end of the breaker bar, push on the tensioner pulley to where the tension is taken off of the timing belt and the spring is fully extended, then tighten the tensioner. Now remove the timing belt.

Next remove both Timing belt idler pulley and tensioner pulley.

Now remove the 10mm bolt holding the oil dipstick tube brace to the engine block. And if you can, remove the Oil dipstick tube its self out of the block. Chances are that it is in the block very good and will be very hard to get out. I tried all sorts of methods of getting it out, but didnt succeed, because it makes the job a WHOLE LOT easier out of the way.

Now before starting to take the water pump out, take the lower radiator hose off the bottom of the radiator and off of the water pump inlet tube that runs between the power steering pump and AC pump, draining any coolant trapped in the hose.

Now you can remove the two 12mm bolts holding the inlet pipe to the side of the water pump. If you couldn't get the Oil dipstick tube out, or decided not to try, well this is why it would be MUCH easier to have it out of the way. Those two bolts are a P.I.T.A. to get out (and In) with the tube in the way. there is also a coolant return hard line that runs into the side of the inlet tube that is just press fitted. Just twist and pull on the inlet pipe towards the passenger wheel well.

When you get done getting that out of the way, you can take all the bolts out of the water pump and get it out of there!

NOW YOU ARE HALF WAY DONE!!

From here on out, putting everything back together should be done in the exact way it all came out, only in reverse.

When i comes to putting the timing belt on, make sure you start with the crank first and route it up around the pulleys and to the cam gears, that way you can turn the cams if any to line up with the marks on the timing belt, ensuring it all goes back together the way it came off. Torque bolts to 27-38ft.lbs but don't strip out the threads, you are dealing with aluminum here.

Once its back on and the timing belt tensioner pulley is loose but the spring is still keeping tension on it, hand crank the motor over in Clockwise direction 3 full revolutions and stop at TDC.

Go ahead and tighten timing belt tension to where there is between .35-.45" (8.9-11mm) deflection between the cam shaft sprockets and torque bolts to 37-38ft. lbs.

Finish putting everything back together reverse of how it came out, fill the system up with new Coolant/Antifreeze and you are ready to start the car up and drive!

Hope this was helpful. I know now this is the most descriptive step by step procedure online for this job on this car and couldn't even find anything this descriptive on the Ford Escort Owners Association(FEOA.com) forums.

Good luck!

After you buy the new ornament, to take the old one out, get a small Phillips head screwdriver and a big, soft rag. Basically, you just use the rag to keep from scratching the paint on the hood as you work the screwdriver (may be easier with two) underneath the ornament, and slowly work it up enough that it just pops right out.

The ornament has two posts at the 3 and 9 o'clock position. Work evenly at these two points. An alternative to the screwdriver and rag are silicon tools that won't scratch the paint. These can be purchased on BavAuto.com

A PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER?

-However, I have a 1990 Ford Bronco II Eddie Bauer, and I have two keys which will only open and lock the doors, and two keys that will only operate the ignition.