OK, now WHAT ?

[LaGuardia]

Well, I didn't succeed in taking my afternoon off, so I'll work on this next sunday. All right.

Just one more question about the bolts: I searched everywhere but there's no way to get hold of a SAE bolt that fits the two bracket holes in the new pump.

The good part: the shorter bolt (the one for the PS pump bracket) is reusable. It fits (after a good cleaning) the lower hole of the water pump. OK.

The bad: the other one (the one for the upper belt tensioner bracket) is shot. I've bent it in the removal process, so no way to reuse it, and the threads are mostly gone.

At first I thought about using a smaller one (as in the previous comment) but I'm in doubt. I'm afraid that too much clearance between the bracket hole and the bolt itself could allow the bracket to "pivot" on the two upper fixings (the protruding studs of the head bolts) and eventually, in the long run, cause it to crack under the belt pressure and vibrations.

I'd prefer a tight fit, so I thought I might go with this: the original 3/8" bolt is a tad thicker than a 9mm metric one.
Would it be a bad idea drilling the upper hole of the water pump up to 10mm and then using a normal 10mm pass through bolt with washers and nut to hold everything together ? The tensioner bracket hole is not threaded and the 10mm bolt fills it perfectly.

In the end, I'm willing to get rid of the water pump hole threads: that would allow the "normal" 10mm bolt to pass through it.

The question is: using an HSS point and driving carefully (and slowly) the drill, how many chances do I have to crack the water pump housing ?

I know it might sound crazy (I'll work half an hour to do something that usually takes 30 seconds), but if you lived in a totally metric world you would understand me better

[Jurjen]

I would prefer using a drilll stand, HSS is fine.
Clamp the pump down with on a piece of hard wood and use high speed and low feed.

[LaGuardia]

Yay !! I've made it !

A wonderful saturday for me... the Eagle is on the road AGAIN (until next trouble will show up, of course).

I took my time to do everything in a relaxed way, so I also took care of other minor things while I was at it.

I chickened out about the drilling part, so (after evaluating the "pivot" risk) I went with the smaller bolt , washers and nut solution. It seems to hold everything in place just fine so, why worry ?

So, what I've done so far ?

- Flushed the block and the radiator;

- Cleaned up everything in places I never thought I could have access to;

- Installed the thermostat in place of the non-existing one (and drilled it before);

- New t-stat housing (I didn't crack anything, I just thought the brand new one would look cooler );

- Obviously, new water pump;

- New fan clutch;

- New rad hoses (upper and lower - I also reinstalled the spring into the lower one);

- About 10 liters of 50/50 cooling fluid (it really takes so much) !

I drove about 100 miles since then and I noticed some things:

Now I know how an Eagle cooling system should work... and I guess it never worked right since I had the car. I always thought that either the gauge or the sender or both were faulty, but I was wrong. With the t-stat installed and the fan working as it's supposed to, the needle reaches the middle of the green zone in minutes and then it just STAYS THERE, floating a bit near the upper green limit in slow traffic and a bit lower on the highway. SWEET !! I love it.

Also, the "working" fan clutch is a great thing... the engine runs way smoother and quieter, the pulleys and belts are no longer dragging a stuck fan at impossible speeds, it seems I'm driving another car.

Too soon to tell, but it also seems I'm getting better MPG.

I think we can archive this under the "been there, done that" section. If anyone needs help with water pump related stuff, I'm here to lend a hand... quite an "expert" now !

[IowaEagle]

Congratulations!  ............ it will get just into the green zone when it is really cold out, but you will have plenty of heat, even then.

[BenM]

Good to see it working. It sounds like it cools perfectly now.

[brownbear]

was told I need a new clutch fan also, what exactly does the eagle have?  Is it a thermal or non thermal that spins clockwise?

[mudkicker715]

Thermal

[Hawk258]

Just a bit of info, I have found that if you are working on an older car, "Generally" if you fix one item in a given system, there will be an issue with something up or down the line from it. IE: You change the alternator only to find out you have a bad battery or something dragging on your belt/pulley system. OR You change the fuel pump then find you have hoses beginning to crack and leak. or some dang crazy thing. so keep this in mind. You would be surprised how many times fixing one thing may actually help you "Discover" a weak area down the line in a given system or set of systems.

[carnuck]

If it's Vee belt, it's clockwise. If serpentine belt, it's counter clockwise!