I = Bad Mechanic

therealnerd2

therealnerd2

therealnerd2

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Joined
25 Oct 2002
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Cambridge,York,Bristol
So yet again I have attempted some simple Mechanical job on my mondeo only to end up frustrated and peeved.

Yesterday I fancied a crack at the water pump.

As many of you know, the plastic impeller jobbies and prone to spontaneous explosion, and should be replaced with metal ones.

I had already purchased a metal version, and a gasket from a Jag dealership.

To my great supprise, I managed to remove the old pump without much swearing, or multiple trips to halfords to finally get the correct tool. I even fitted the new one. Great, i'm thinking! This car stuff's easy!

It leaked. Quite a lot.

Okay I thought, don't panic, you probably didnt clean the old gasket material off the housing well enough.

Off comes the pump again, and after much scraping and sanding, the pump housing looks smooth and gorgeous. On goes the pump again.

It still leaks. Not quite so much.

Anyone got any hints......?????
 
maybe you tightened a bolt to tight and cracked some housing on the water pump or similar?

I did this when fitting a new thermostat to my Ford, bolt to tight = cracked metal :(

hairline crack but when tight and hot leaks like a sieve!
 
thepedster said:
maybe you tightened a bolt to tight and cracked some housing on the water pump or similar?

I did this when fitting a new thermostat to my Ford, bolt to tight = cracked metal :(

hairline crack but when tight and hot leaks like a sieve!
Click to expand...

Thanks but its not leaking too much any more, so i'm hoping its not that.

If I get it off I'll have a good check for that though :)
 
"After much sanding" could be an issue. I would never sand a gasket face unless you do it gently and make sure its even by using a suitable parallel. Especially on more modern engines. You can get away with stanley blade and scouring pad with a bit of patience. Did you set it to the specified torque? It is possible and sometimes easy to over tighten and squash the gasket.
 
therealnerd2 said:
Off comes the pump again, and after much scraping and sanding, the pump housing looks smooth and gorgeous. On goes the pump again.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the damage you have done to the face is causing water to leak out past the gasket faces, Slap on some flange sealent and hope for the best....
 
Also be sparing with the sealant if you use it. Don't pack it in, not good practice. Probably not so important with the cooling system, but i still would go easy on it.
 
Thanks for the help guys.

With regards to the sanding/scraping - the guide I was following recommended using a flat blade screwdriver to scrape off the old gasket material. This seemed to be doing more damage than a bit of sanding on the metal. Perhaps I exaggerate - I don't feel I could have done any damage to the housing with my scraping. Certainly it's flatter than when I started.

How would you guys get the old gasket off?

BigglesPiP said:
I'd be down the ford dealer with the chassis number, spend a few pence on a fresh gasket.
Click to expand...

Well, I used a new gasket the first time, and that leaked, so I'm gonna need more than a fresh gasket to magically make it work.

Picked up some hylamar, but it doesn't seem to be leaking much any more (and its raining), so i'll leave it for a couple of days and see how the coolant level goes down.

I'm slowly rounding off the bolts each time I remove it, so I don't want to remove it again unless I have to.

milgo said:
Did you set it to the specified torque? It is possible and sometimes easy to over tighten and squash the gasket.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you could pop round and fit the torque wrench in for me? :p No, seriously, there's no way I could fit the torque wrench in - I can't even fit my small halfords wrench in for most of the bolts. So basically, yes, this could be the problem. Am trying to do it just handtight+1/2turn roughly, not too tight.
 
heh they are usually a bit tight :) What i sometimes do is do up a bolt to the torque in something else i have lying around. Just gives you a feel for how tight it should be.

Ive always found stanley blades are the best for scraping, things like screwdrivers and proper gasket scrapers like to dig in on the edges.
 
milgo said:
heh they are usually a bit tight :) What i sometimes do is do up a bolt to the torque in something else i have lying around. Just gives you a feel for how tight it should be.

Ive always found stanley blades are the best for scraping, things like screwdrivers and proper gasket scrapers like to dig in on the edges.
Click to expand...

Nice plan. :)

I did use a stanley knife too, which helped.
 
Sounds like a lick of Hylomar would fix that. If it's a hard plastic gasket then it won't seal.
 
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