Now turning my attention to changing the Timing Belt and fitting a new water pump, only cos its the sensible thing to do, even though it doesn't seem to be giving any trouble. Anyway, timing belt cover is off......and before I dig deeper, it looks like the inlet cam drive pulley could stop the pump coming off. Is that so ?

Maxcaddy said:

it looks like the inlet cam drive pulley could stop the pump coming off. Is that so ?

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The eLEARN workshop manual says both pulleys need to be removed.
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Wow many thanks Davren, I could guess it would be more involved than just centre punching the gears, and doing it by eye .

As long as both the drive gears are keyed or on splines shafts, its just becomes a bit more of a faff.

I checked the 'new' water pump against an old 1.8 one that I didn't fit last time around (5 years ago) (as there was no play), and it was in fact virtually identical apart from the drive roller being a different diameter, which is something to be established when my old 2.4 one comes out.

What I don't have is a new O ring/gasket, and I'm not sure (without going back out to the garage) whether there is an undercut for the O ring on the new pump. Sometimes O rings are sealed by sitting in a champfer which may be the case now ?

Anyway forecast for this weekend is that its going to get 'kin cold, so adjourning til Monday hopefully by next Friday I might have finished it all

Hi
From what I can see from my photos I took while doing the rebuild.
You should be able to change the waterpump without to remove any cam pulleys.
Only thing to do is to remove cam guard screw that turn into Waterpump, turn pump about 5 degrees clockwise and remove.
I would suggest changing static pulley and the tentioner also.
Good idea to change the aircon belt, alternator belt and tentioner also.

PS! Note o-ring groove, go to the garage and get a new one ?

Smashing photo if only my engine was out on a stand, it would be so much easier As you know, space around there is about as tight as you can get .

Anyway, I'm now encouraged enough to try to get the pump off in situ, and if it doesn't, then off with the drive sprockets.

I've already bought 5 Litres of G30, so a Radiator flush and a change was on the cards, and as and when the pump is finally out, I'll be able to see how it seals.

As an aside, the water pump I had left over from my 1.8 is identical to this 2.4 one (other than the pulley dia), but that one had cast iron impeller, whereas this new one is made from formed thin steel plate. Hopefully the antifreeze will stop the plate from eroding away

In actual fact I bought a full Gates Kit comprising of the Belt, pulley, tensioner and water pump, which is why I was surprised there was no O ring/gasket provided with it.

Maxcaddy said:

Smashing photo if only my engine was out on a stand, it would be so much easier As you know, space around there is about as tight as you can get .

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For extra space, remove water bottle.
Then remove the 2 bolts holding the engine mounting to the body.
Move with a wedge mounting to battery side, so engine will slide side ways creating some extra space. ( Not toooooo far ?)

On just having another look (with my glasses on ) I've spotted a very fine O ring around the water pump base, so apologies for that :shrug:. Fortunately it does look like it might squeeze out under the sprockets, certainly try that first.

Agree with the stripping ideas, and if I chock the underneath I think the whole engine mounting arrangement on that side can come off, and if so that could be more than enough space without having to shift the motor over. In the past I would have held the engine in a sling, but I don't have those toys any more .

Well, changed the timing belt and it was so much easier than I was expecting . The last 5 cyl I worked on was my Quattro about 25 years ago, and that was a 10V so somewhat easier to change and re-time.

Amazingly the Crankshaft pulley came straight off, which is totally different to the Audi, and after reading about 'Abarth L' stripdown, the answer became apparent. Whereas where Audi use the Pulley as the crankshaft balance weight, Fiat use the gear/sprocket behind it. Consequently when you try to undo the pulley bolt in-order to get the old belt off of the Audi, you discover just how tight 250 ft lbs really is .

The other surprise was that after spending a while making an alignment gauge as I was expecting the cam to spring as soon as the tension was removed, I was amazed that it all stayed in place which made fitting the new belt so much easier. So a productive day, and on to the next item on the list .