Hello,

I am replacing my water pump on a 2005 XJ8L with 235,000 miles after a giant coolant leak left me stranded.

It seemed relatively straightforward. Not so!

My water pump pulley is stuck on the old water pump. I removed all three bolts holding it in place. Most guides/videos show it easily coming off at this point. It will rotate fully and come out maybe 1/2 an inch before getting stuck.

I’ve tried pulling with my hands and gently hitting a wrench with a hammer to unstick it.

Nothing is working. Would anyone happen to have any suggestions?

Thank you.

 

Remove the belt completely first.

 

I solved my own problem. It looks like the old pump rusted on to the connection.

Tapping with a hammer and long screw driver while rotating the pulley got it off. It took alot of tapping!

Hopefully this explanation will help someone else in the future.

 

If the vehicle has the normally aspirated engine, be sure to also change the water outlet pipe, which contains the thermostat as they're prone to failure.

 

I've got this job to do, have already got a new water pump ready to go, but yes that's good advice on the water outlet pipe I'll get a new one ordered. 👍

 

I'll be doing this job soon as well on my 2006 4.2 n/a engine with 110000 miles. Can you tell me though as its not clear online and lots of varying thoughts, when you installed the new waterpump did you use any O rings in addition to the metal gasket? As the jag parts diagram for the water pump shows the pump, the gasket and a 55mm O ring as well as a 70mm O ring, however it's not clear where these O rings go exactly and if both are used or just one or if its not necessary at all to use any O rings? Also did you remove all the throttle body to gain access first to remove waterpump?

Many thanks

Mark

 

there’s two types of water pumps

the discontinued one piece with an o-ring and a two-piece with no o-ring. the latter is the most common, only the acdelco pump still uses an o-ring. the pic below are the one piece pumps

 

Hi Mark,

My replacement aftermarket water pump only had a gasket, no o- ring.

It went on relatively easily. My coolant reservoir tank broke where the plastic nipple attaches to the small, top hose. That part comes in next Tuesday…

 

That happens all the time. The plastic gets really brittle and almost every job on these cars involves leaning over the expansion tank. I broke mine doing belt replacement and I am very aware of it when I do work on the car now!

 

Hi all,

I changed mine a while back, and I changed the water pump, the whole plastic thermostat housing, the small coolant pipes, coolant hoses, throttle body gaskets and the large auxiliary belt. My thermostat housing was cracked and leaking badly with coolant all down the front of the engine. It was running down and onto the front belt and was then being thrown all around the front. It was cheaper to buy the whole thermostat housing instead of all the separate items as it comes with the housing (front and rear sections), gaskets, temp sensor and thermostat all installed and ready to fit. It just made sense to replace all the items in that area whilst you are in there.

I unfortunately was unlucky enough to round off one of the small long water pump bolts as it was stuck and maybe overtightened from someone elses previous maintenance. But I got a bolt extractor socket that cracked it open straight away.

If the water pump pulley won't separate from the water pump, even after some persuasion with a whack, you can use a small hub bearing pulley to pull it off. You've need one that pushes the bolt mechanism in the middle whilst pulling the pulley. That should get it off.

Also as others have said, the new water pumps usually now come with only the metal gaskets, you just need to ensure that it's flat as you attach the water pump to the mounting points.

Overall it's not a bad job, just lots of little bits to get out of the way.

Glad you got yours all sorted.

Cheers,

Chris