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Anyone ever replace water pump on 5.7?

34K views 11 replies 4 participants last post by  marko138 
#1 ·
Preliminary look suggests it's leaking. Anyone ever replace one and can give some insight as to how difficult it is? Maybe a quick step by step? Remove this, empty that, move this, etc?

TIA
 
#5 ·
Hey Briandl I tried replying to your PM, but your inbox was full. I'll just post my response here.

It was actually on my WK. It's pretty straight forward. The FSM that I have was completely useless for this job. The 5.7 setup they had was actually for a Dakota or RAM. Basically drain the coolant, disconnect hoses at the pump, pull the belt(remember how it goes back on cause the FSM again doesn't show the right belt configuration), remove the idler and tensioner pulley assembly's off the pump, disconnect the hard line heater hose bolt at the intake and pull the tube out of the water pump, remove the pump bolts, and wiggle the pump straight up through the AC lines. I went ahead and cleaned the mounting surface of the engine with some emory cloth, installed the new pump as well as the new thermostat, torqued the water pump bolts to 18 ft. lbs., reinstated the idler and tensioner pulley, put a little grease on the o ring on the hard line heater hose and slid it into the pump. Pull the bleed plug and fill radiator until coolant come out of the bleed hole, reinsert bleed plug, start it up, turn the heat on and burp the cooling system like normal. All in all it took about two hours. I bought the pump from the dealership for $130. Believe you can get an oem one from jeepoemparts.com for $95.

that should pretty much cover it. lmk if you run into any issues or have anymore questions,

Sean
 
#6 ·
What's this bleed hole you speak of? I know the 4.7 has one, I wasn't aware of one on the 5.7.

How difficult would you say it was? I've removed the entire dash assembly to replace heater/evaporator cores so I'm sure I can do it, so I'm just curious.
 
#7 ·
The bleed plug is just like the one for the 4.7, except instead of being on the timing cover assembly its on the water pump itself. I'd say if you removed your whole dash, you should be up to the task of tackling the water pump. Easy to do, no need for rtv as the gasket is a formed rubber ring.
 
#8 ·
I found it. I just remember reading something possibly in the FSM about it not having a bleed hole. Some alternate steps you have to take to bleed the 5.7, but I do see it right next to the upper hose connection.

Another question, where exactly is the weep hole? I'm about 99% sure that's where it's leaking from, but I want to be sure.

TIA.
 
#9 ·
I found it. I just remember reading something possibly in the FSM about it not having a bleed hole. Some alternate steps you have to take to bleed the 5.7, but I do see it right next to the upper hose connection.

Another question, where exactly is the weep hole? I'm about 99% sure that's where it's leaking from, but I want to be sure.

TIA.
Depends on the FSM I suppose, but mine for the '05 is useless for the 5.7. It even shows a different water pump and belt configuration and would have you remove the AC compressor to get to the water pump.

The weep hole if i remember correctly is on the top of these kind of tucked under the pulley. It's also not uncommon for the rubber formed gasket to get old and leak on the 4.7/5.7 setups. You can buy the gasket from any parts store. How's the pulley feel? Any slop? Lateral play? How's it feel with the belt removed? Any more than a couple mm's of play and i would replace it. If you do end up replacing the pump, go oem. I checked out a few different ones including a nice Gates pump and it still had play in the bearing new! The new oem one does not.
 
#10 ·
Never a big fan of OEM, especially when they die prematurely. These water pumps seem to go out often on Commanders, but mine has a little over 90K so I may go OEM. It's like two to three times the price though.

I don't think the gasket is worth replacing, if I'm going to do all of that work with over 90K miles I might as well replace the whole thing.
 
#11 ·
I was in the same boat on my WJ when the gasket took a crap I replaced the pump. My oem one on the hemi went 118k miles and was the best quality out of all the replacement ones I looked at.
 
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