Water Pump Question for 88 (or anyone)

[NissanPerson]

I am in the process of putting newly painted fenders and hood on my pathy that was totaled out. My bro bought a giant compressor and all the gear (pullers and what not) and we painted it up. My question...how risky is it (since we both figured we'd have to take the harmonic balancer off to get at the water pump) to do the timing belt and water pump without having the tools that check for making sure the pulleys/gears (I can't think of the correct names cause I'm in a hurry) don't get out of whack and mess up the timing and whatever? There are already marks on them that line up with other marks ( if you were to turn them) so I'm assuming a mechanic did that before. Anyway, is it as simple as just pulling all the stuff off and marking the positions and putting it back on as closely as we can? My brother has done it on other cars and said it's a little less confusing than this one and he and I are just wondering to make sure we don't mess up completely. I read your post (88Path) on a link I found searching for "water pump" as we still have 30 grand until we need to replace the timing belt (but we figured we'd do it anyway) and it seemed like all we have to do is mark and be sure they are darn close to those marks when we put it all back on. And, since the whole front end is off we figured now couldn't be a better time to learn. Anyway, thanks!

[94extreme]

Yup, you are on the right track. I'd get the engine TDC before taking the belt off. That should ease the procedure.

[k9sar]

When I did mine, I ignored TDC (which is where those little marks line up on the housing) and simply marked the pulley's and timing belt with a dot of white-out or similar stuff. You can even replace the timing belt this way as long as you transfer the marks from the old belt to the new before you align it and slip it on. As long as you are careful, you should be ok.

[94extreme]

When I did mine, I ignored TDC (which is where those little marks line up on the housing) and simply marked the pulley's and timing belt with a dot of white-out or similar stuff.  You can even replace the timing belt this way as long as you transfer the marks from the old belt to the new before you align it and slip it on.  As long as you are careful, you should be ok.

if you do it this way, count the teeth on the belt between your markings; belts do stretch you know. It is so much easier if you hit TDC though. I've been through this before many times....

[87pathy]

In addtion, most belts that you buy have marks on them to show you where they ares supposed to be in relation to the marks that will be on the gears.

 

Gears normally have a punch mark on them and the belt will have some lines on it

 

its really not hard to do at all, i did it with abosolutley no knowledge of what i was doing at the time.

[94extreme]

its really not hard to do at all, i did it with abosolutley no knowledge of what i was doing at the time.

eggzactly!

[k9sar]

true... true and true. I'm just lazy and have not had a problem yet. The only time I actually had to hit TDC was a buddy who broke his belt and got everything out-of-whack. Had to rely on the marks at that point. :-)

[NissanPerson]

Thanks guys! We figured it was that simple but just thought it wouldn't hurt to run it by all you crazy fools who have done it before on a Pathy. Anyway, I bought the belt and water pump and it should be cake...except for the 90 degrees and humidity. Oh, and just so you know...straightening out a front end isn't that bad. Just buy a slide hammer and a couple other things and you're good to go. We straightened the two "arms" that hold the fenders on (they were about 8 inches towards the drivers side) with a chain, another cars trailer hitch and load tie down binder things...we also prayed to God that the chain wouldn't snap and kill us.