im an ase certified mechanic and i work at an independant shop. i recently had the pleasure of installing a water pump on a 96 max. the book pays 3.5 hours to do this job. i opened up the w.p access cover and detensioned the chain and could not even budge this pos water pump out of its housing, . i ended up pulling the entire cover off to get it out (seized up). anyway even if the pump wasnt seized will it even come out of the access cover? looks damn tight. i can understand the 3.5 hours if this is the case but i just dont see it.what does nissans service manuals say about how to remove this water pump? just curious....thanks

 

I just did the water pump on my 96 max and it was a pain in the ***. you can do it with out pulling the hole cover. What i did was pull both inspection covers off the take the tension off the chain by compressing the tensioner and putting a pin in it. the after u take the three bolts out of the pump take two long 8mm bolts and screw them back in to the water pump to push it out of the block. it is a pain in the *** to hold the chain out of the way. the best way i found was to take some long 90 deg bent needle nose pliers and hold the chain out of the way. it took me like 5 hours to do this because i could not figuer out a good way to hold the cahin out of the way. after i used the needle nose it was easy.

my .02

 

it cost me almost 500 bucks to have my water pump replaced

 

I am currently siung the mechanic that replaced my water pump, because he jumped my chain and did not re-assemble the tensioner bar correctly. My car sounded strange when I got it back, and the metal shavings in my oil were not a good sign. Please be careful, or you may have to contact your shop liability insurance carrier.

 

I got mine done for $250 in the bronx.