Dodging the Mercury

As you know - my pickup lost its water pump when I went over to Doug's house to get the hoist & stand. It made sounds like a rusty swing set - except at 700 RPM - and unceremoniously lost control of its bladder all over Doug's driveway. It sat there for a week until I towed it home. That was Halloween.

Today - it ran again & the heat worked. So - an entire month of distraction from the Mercury.

First off, I did manage to find an OEM service manual I could download. I followed the diagnostic procedure - and after I refilled the radiator - I quickly realized that since the water pump was spraying coolant everywhere, that was probably the first culprit. I decided I would replace the thermostat too inspite of the fact that it passed the diagnostic test and wasn't in the way for the water pump.

I ordered the pump, fan clutch & thermostat from RockAuto. I should have ordered all of the other parts too. I made myself a list that was 95% correct, but for what ever reason I didn't bother to use it and chose to shuttle back and forth to Oreilly's 4 times. I got a new serpentine belt, new radiator hoses and some hose clamps, some RTV gasket sealer, and a grommet that fits between the air-cleaner and the carb. Yeah - that was the four trips.

One nice thing about working on the Mercury is that all bolts are SAE. One hideously frustrating thing about working on the Dodge is that all bolts are SAE except for the two metric ones.

To remove a water pump, you have to drain the coolant, remove the lower radiator hose, remove the over flow bottle and the washer resevoir, remove the fan + fan clutch from the water pump pulley, remove the fan shroud, then remove the heater bypass tube and the thermostate bypass tube. Then the pump comes right off. To install it - you do all that the other way around.

Lets see - what went wrong:

• 2 or 4 days to figure out how to get the washer resevoir to detach from the fan shroud. There are 2 catches molded into the back of the bottle which you can not see from the top or the side (only from a specific angle underneath). Then once I found them, I could not get them to let go without shoving a big screw driver in there and prying them apart from the shroud.
• At least a week to figure out how to remove the fan clutch from the pulley. The instruction manual I have is for a 1998 - I am guessing the design changed in 1999 and this procedure was certainly a key distinction. I finally went and bought a 12" crescent wrench and a 6" strap wrench - I put the strap on the pulley and the crescent on the clutch nut - and whacked the wrench with a hammer to get it to break free.
• Several hours removing and reinstalling hose clamps. My truck had these spring type hose clamps - and I have lost my decent channel locks. I removed the four clamps using a pair of 6" channel locks I think I found on the side of the road one day. That process took 90 minutes altogether - not counting the amount of time it took me to cut & pick the hose from the radiator top & bottom, water pump, and thermostat housing. I could have bought a pair of hose clamp pliers. I should have bought a pair of hose clamp pliers. Instead - I bought a nicer pair of channel locks. I spent about 1/2 an hour wrestling 2 clamps in place. The other two I replaced with the screw type - I had had enough by then.
• I spent an hour looking for this tiny o-ring that came with the water pump. It is supposed to seal the heater bypass tube to the pump. It is about the size of a dime. I had given up and was headed to the store (again) when I saw it right where it should have been - in the plastic bag with the water pump gasket.
• Speaking of the water pump gasket, it took 30 minutes for me to figure out how to suspend it in place when I went put the new pump on. I tried using my mental powers to levitate it into position. I tried having a couple of bolts hold it while I jimmied the bypass hose. I tried to slide it into place after I had the pump connected to the bypass hose. None of those worked. In the end, I schmeered some RTV on the block and squished the new gasket onto that. Then with it stuck into place, I could install the new pump onto the bypass hose and get the bolts into place.

Now for what went right - 

• All of the things I disconnected to get to the water pump and thermostat went back where they came from (nothing left dangling and no extra parts and nothing got lost in my garage over the course of 4.5 weeks.
• After I torqued the water pump down, it turned - it didn't go "ggggrrrrgggg" against the block when I spun the pulley by hand
• I managed to get the serpentine belt routed correctly the first time
• The truck started
• The truck is much quieter than it has been in a long time - no weird squeally or squeaky noises - certainly not the sounds of dragging a tricycle down the freeway
• The heater works and doesn't make the sounds of a snorkling hippo anymore
• The generator worked, so the battery charges. The A/C worked too
• The thermostat worked (the motor bay is now quiet enough I could actually hear it click open). It held the block at a very in-spec 195F/90.5C
• There is no longer a sprinkler system operating inside my engine bay - aside from what I spilled refilling the radiator, everything remained dry

I am pretty glad that is taken care of and I can get back to worrying over the Mercury again.