DBear

After about 240K, it was my turn to replace the water pump. Like everyone says, it's tedious and meticulous, and you have to be very careful working around the timing chain cover, but it's doable. I started out trying to take the motor mount off, then just decided to work around it. I don't think taking it off would have helped that much, although my hands aren't particularly large. YMMV.

I won't repeat what's been said in a lot of other threads. I mainly followed Paul Mohr's youtube videos, and this post: https://maxima.org/forums/5th-genera...-all-de-k.html. It's for 5th gen, but as someone said, it works for 4th too. The only difference I found is that I didn't have a metal gasket under the timing chain tensioner.

I'll just add a few things that I learned:

1. Getting the pump up out of the engine compartment is tricky. Even Paul struggled with that on his videos. The orientation that works is to have the chain drive part of the pump facing forward, and then have one of the flat short sides of the mounting plate lined up with the body of the car. In other words--the bolt holes are at about 12, 3 and 6 o'clock. (More like 1, 4, and 7, but you get the idea.) If you line up the side between the 12 and 3 holes with the side of the body, it will slide out. IIRC correctly, I also turned it slightly, so that the side of the mounting plate closest to the engine was a little forward of the side closest to the body. Here's a picture, although it's a little hard to make out: http://s397.photobucket.com/user/Dbe...tml?sort=3&o=0. Photobucket turned it upside down, so it's looking from the engine side. Just flip it and it will be a lot clearer.

I decided to put the O rings on after I had the new pump back down by the opening. I was a little nervous about cutting them on one of the fins, but they seem to be OK.

2. Getting the covers back on with wet RTV is also tricky. Somebody else posted a brilliant idea--get a couple of bolts of the same size as the cover bolts. I think they're M6 x 1.0. Get them a little longer than the cover bolts (maybe 1.25"), then cut the heads off. Then thread the screw ends into two of the bolt holes to create guides for the cover to slide onto (always being careful NOT to drop them into the timing chain cover). That made it a lot easier. I still smudged the RTV a little on the water pump cover, but so far there's no oil leaking. If I had to do it again (which I might...), I'd get a large magnet or two and stick them on the outside of the cover, for something to hold on to. I think that would be nearly foolproof.

3. Paul's video (and some posts) say to re-tighten the crank pulley before you re-install the chain tensioner, but I wanted as much room as possible to get the tensioner back in, so I cranked the pulley back after. That worked just fine.

4. I don't normally wear gloves of any kind, but RTV black does a really does a nice job of staining your hands...

Derpington

good info, the job is a PITA. should anyone have trouble removing the old pump with your passenger mount bolted in just unbolt your passenger side mount and jack the engine up 1/2-1in. This gives you plenty of room to remove the old pump and install the new one.


Anyone attempting this job should leave ample time. Took me about 6 hours from start to finish and I like to think I have ample mechanical/DIY skill.

DBear

Thanks for the reminder. I did have the mount unbolted, and the engine jacked up about 1/8". I didn't know how far I could go without damaging something, but that was enough to get the pump out. I'm not sure I would have had room without raising it a bit. It probably would have helped to go up higher.

And this is absolutely not a good job to tackle with a deadline...