I was changing the belt on my recently purchased 2001 Disco with 138K miles on it and I checked the water pump for play. It doesn't have any up and down movement but front to back has a little play. Does this warrant a new water pump?

There is a squeal but I believe that is the tensioner pully and/or the power steering which needs to be flushed.

Also not sure when the last time the water pump was replaced but it hasn't been loosing coolant since I changed the heater core and the head gaskets look great with no over heating issues.

-Jason

 

You certainly have gotten plenty of miles out of it. May start to leak like mine, from the front. As they wear, they begin to wobble the pulley when running, you can observe from the side. Wobble enough and they eat into the front cover. A little more, they come off with fan and eat radiator. Parts are $50 and up, depending on source. About an hour, once you get fan off.

Important points:

test fan clutch for freewheeling when warm (with truck off spin by hand, no more than 1 revolution). If replacing clutch (tech section has write up on a $50 chevy model) be sure fan blades go back on same direction.

Keep water pump bolts in order, several sizes.

Consider doing coolant system flush and replacing thermostat also. Distilled water and green or yellow coolant, no Dexcool please.

 

So I guess to be on the safe side I should just replace it. It's a shame they didn't factor in a way to drain the coolant so it can be reused. I just did the heater core and replaced the orange garbage with green.

Also tracking down an oil leak in the front that slings oil on the ground and all over the front of the engine when running. Not a lot but enough for everything to get a nice layer of grime on it. I'm thinking it's the front crank seal so I guess replacing that is in order too at which point I should probably replace the timing chain and gears while I'm getting dirty. Anything else I should replace while in there? Seems like by the time I'm done, I'll have a new engine.

 

water pump, hoses, t-stat ,belt, timing chain (will requires dropping the oil pan). might as well do it all while your there.

 

1. Oil leak you describe could be from front crank seal, see it in photo #2, has blue diagnostic RTV on it. Cleaned it off, RTV, over night, crank and it makes a hairline crack in the RTV, reduced flow until I can get to it. Have seal, about $3. Getting main pulley off requires a trick or two, like bracing cheater bar against ground and bumping starter. 185 foot pounds torque. It is said that the crank seal can be replaced without removing the front cover (insert screws to yank it out).

3. If going in the cover, oil pump is a good candidate for upgrade. See photo of a ticking pump, note cracks, it made PSI, just not enough. Saw a post a while back about a Chevy cross reference for the timing chain for like $30.

3. If you wipe off the lower hose, and use a large shallow pan, should be able to catch and reuse most of the 13 quarts of coolant, might have to filter through cloth if any grit drops in with it.

 

if you do the timing chain the very first bolt you want to break free is on the crank pully, comes out pretty easy with the belt and acc. still connected. Other wise if you wait it; can be a pain to get out because the crank keeps spinning. but if you forget it can be gotten out other ways.

 

Keep in mind that the timing chain on our disco's don't need to be replaced until 180,000 to 200,000 miles.

 

Once the crankshaft bolt is removed, are any special tools needed to get the pulley off or does it just slide off?

 

it will slide right off; no puller needed.
I should have added if you have use of an impact gun the bolt will pull right out,
you just cant use the impact putting it on.

 

Mine has 127,000 and it was very sloppy. Major difference from new and the old. If your getting a front cover leak, you should just do the timing and the oil pump while you have it apart...