The 92 Corolla (4afe engine) has been off the road the past 15 months due to Calif’s rules for emissions testing. Now that the situation is starting to get under control I’ve taken advantage of the off-road time to do some routine maintenance, one being a small but pesky coolant leak. It was difficult to pinpoint the source, but various experiments pointed to the water pump shaft seal. Replacing the pump would be a simple job except that it requires removing the upper timing belt covers, which first requires removing the water pump pulley. Problematic b/c there’s not enough clearance between the outside edge of the pulley and the inner fender to simply unbolt the pulley and yank it out. The engine needs to be jacked up enough so the pulley doesn’t interfere w/the inner fender. This requires removing the left engine mount bolt (front of the engine), and the middle and rear transmission mount fasteners . Before I did the above I placed a jack under the oil pan and a 2 x 12 piece of wood as a buffer to hold the engine in place. After the mount fasteners were removed then I jacked the engine up. It was simple enough to get it jacked high enough to remove the water pump pulley bolts, but to actually remove the pulley from the engine compartment I had to jack the engine higher. I was able to finally clear the pulley from the inner fender and get it out, but to obtain the needed clearance not only did the engine go up, but the right front wheel went off the ground too. This was unexpected, and am wondering if this is normal? Why doesn’t the engine just move upward and leave the wheel on the ground? No adverse consequences seem to have occurred, but it seems like a bad idea to jack the front wheel off the ground using the engine. What gives?
Whatever works is normal with cars these days. Airplanes also have simple instructions but actually doing it is not easy. Lay a bead of sealant around the hatch, then install seal. Twenty minutes of squeezing that small tube of thick sealant through the small nozzle will make you wish for a job as an instruction writer.
Thanks for the advice PDV2. I concur there is a lot of room for improvement in repair manual instructions, not only for vehicles but like you say home appliances & much other stuff. One good example for vehicles comes to mind immediately; the shop manual instructions for the water pump job I just completed say as part of the job to remove the water inlet pipe. This is a 2 inch diameter aluminum pipe that returns the coolant from the rear of the engine to the water pump inlet. The water pump is bolted on the engine front-side and pushes the coolant through the engine’s innards from the front to the rear. This pipe runs directly under the intake manifold and is very difficult to gain access. To remove it you’d first have to remove 4 or 5 rubber hoses connected to it, then unbolt it from the engine, all this with the intake manifold in the way. I’d guess it would add another 2-3 hours to the job to remove that pipe, then replace it again.
The weird thing is that removing that pipe or even monkeying with the rubber hoses connected to it isn’t even necessary. In my case I just left it as it was; caused no problem whatsoever. The only reason I can see for removing that pipe would be if you wanted to replace it, which seems unnecessary in almost all cases. I had the advantage of recalling @db4690’s prior advice on this topic and just ignored the shop manual instructions for that water inlet pipe.
It’s nice to see you on this website again
As for myself, I’ve been WAY too busy with various other things, so I’m only able to stop in for a few minutes each week
Life happens . . . 