Water pump pulley removal?

[weazgti]

Have a nice new water pump waiting to go on to replace the whining rattley whingeing thing thats on there but cant really think of a way to get the pulley off,bearing in mind i have no way of clamping it it in a vice or anything to stop it turning.
any ideas?

[Ben Lessani]

Its just 3x bolts.

Get a spare V belt, put it around the pulley and hold the slack, then undo with a ratchet.

Or, if you have no strength, refit the water pump to the car, fit the aux belt, tension it, put the car in gear and slacken the 3x bolts.

[weazgti]

I thought id try it on the car and like you mentioned i put it in gear and the car just moved,even in 5th.
So do you reckon i should remove it and try?

[Ben Lessani]

It will move in 5th - that's the easiest gear to push a car in! Put it in 1st and chock the wheels

I always slacken the pulley in-situ, if you remove it and you don't have a vice/clamp - it will be a bit of an arse.

[weazgti]

Ok i did try in situ cos i dont have a vice. Yes i am a dumbass for thinking 5th would be the best gear to put it in.
Will try in 1st tomorow with the wheels chocked. cheers for the advice.

[Ben Lessani]

Worst case scenario, you remove it and buy a cheap electric impact gun.

[rubjonny]

or use waterpump pliers to hold the pulley still across 2 of the bolts. tricky on your own but doiable. other option is to use a 2nd allen key in one of the bolts wedged to the 2st allen tool to hold it still

[fishnchipsx2]

I managed this on Friday by wedging a metal bar behind the pulley.

You can buy a special tool to hold the pulley still:



Never used or seen one tho, so can't comment on whether or not they're worth it!

[weazgti]

Well got it off with the help of my grinder.Bolts were too rusted and were just chewing up so removed the pump and cut them off.Only problem now is a horrendous whining noise which i think is the cambelt rubbing the metal half of the cover. Definately not the new pump because i tried it briefly without the belt on.
Didnt really have time to look into the noise yesterday because i was in a mood and felt like putting my fist through the window after spending all that time on it.
Does my theory of the cover rubbing seem possible? Cant think what else it could be.

[fishnchipsx2]

I had exactly the same problem!  (Except it was 2am Friday morning, I'd had a few pints, and I needed to be on the road at 8.15am!)

I had bought the whole pump+housing from GSF, but it appeared to be a bit of a sh*t design.  I ended up having to remove one of the 10mm pump-to-housing bolts, because it was pushing the metal cambelt guard against the cambelt.

Strange, because the housing had what looked like a ground-off VAG part number... perhaps just the water-pump half of the assembly was cr*p quality.