I got back from a lovely day with my mum and various other family members and decided to crack on with fixing the water pump on the Barchetta. There were no delivery notes or packages hidden behind the bins so clearly my 'Next Day' delivery for the pump hadn't arrived the next day at all. Never mind, I was only starting the job now.
As usual, things weren't as straight forward as I would have wished. Draining the radiator is easy once u get a pair of pliers to grip the plastic screw head. Clearly it had been a cross head at some point but was now simply a threaded bit of blue plastic with a rubber washer.
Next I had to drain the engine block. As they said on a number of different clips on YouTube - the engine drain plug can be difficult to identify. Safe to say that even with the car back on the road and running smoothly I still have no idea where the engine drain plug is. When I had put everything back together I simply ran the engine until the fan came on and then opened the radiator drain to let the dirty coolant out while pouring freshly mixed coolant in at the top.
The strip down process continued with the unclipping of fan shroud and the attempted removal. If you try this, do not miss the throw away one liner of 'unbolt the fan and remove with the cowl' as the cowl will not come out with the fan in place. How do you do this? Well according one website I read you just put the spanner on the bolt and give a sharp tap to release it. According to another you wedges a screwdriver against the water pump bolts while carefully removing the fan bolt - do not try to shock the fan nut as you risk snapping the water pump bolts. A third website simply said 'unbolt the fan which has a reverse thread. So I needed to unbolt the nut with and without hitting the spanner and either clockwise or anti-clockwise with the water pump locked firmly while free to spin. Clear on that?
It doesn't really matter as I didn't have a 32mm spanner that was thin enough to fit in the gap and connect with the nut. Off to the shops to buy a spanner which was pleasantly cheap at just a tenner. Unfortunately the only spanner I could find had a offset rather than being a straight flat spanner so it was clamped and hammered as best I could with a sprung steel spanner and was still a tight fit. In the end the fan bolt did come free. No shock required but with the pump held still and with a reverse thread - clockwise to undo.
The water pump cover was simple, just four 10mm bolts loosened before trying to remove the serpentine belt. Pop the dust cap off the tensioner pulley. Use a 16mm socket to push the tensioner clockwise and the pulley moves releasing the tension. Now we were really motoring, just the water pump to remove and we were ready to start putting it all back together again. Undo another four 10mm nuts and the pump is free. Well sort of free, there is an empty bolt hole on each side of the water pump into which you insert M6 bolts and tighten each one gently, a bit at a time, to push the water pump free. Rock and roll, we were ready to fit the new water pump in record time.
Now remember I ordered the new water pump from Europarts around lunch time on Boxing Day with next day delivery? Apparently the day after December 26th is December 28th for Europarts and also can be as late as some time after 4pm which explains why the delivery man couldn't see me working in front of the house and had to hide the parcel behind the bins. The guy would make an expert cat burglar - sneaking over me while I worked under the car and sliding the 'You missed the parcel' form into the letter box curling it as it went in so both the inside and outside flaps were shut with the paper hidden between. The whole charade was only discovered the next day when the postman tried to deliver a letter but found the letter box jammed.
Back on the car this morning and the new water pump - found at last - went in easily. I cleaned up the fan, cover, cowl etc and refitted. So much easier going back together with fresh experience that taking it apart was yesterday.
Topping the coolant up was a bit fun as I mentioned but everything went back together, nothing leaked, it was a whole lot quieter and the temperature was steady with the needle in the middle of the dial.
I mentioned last time that when I used Europarts it was against my better judgement but hoped to be pleasantly surprised. I wasn't. They did what they seem to do every time I use them. They frustrated me and wasted a load of my time. Next Day delivery for means not the next day but at the end of the day after the next day so basically 2 days before you can actually use what you have ordered. It would have been quicker to wait a day and collect the damn thing directly from the branch.
If you ever hear me say "I am going to use Europart" please slap me around the head with a fresh salmon until I come to my senses.
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