How much play in waterpump bearing?
 

I am replacing my polyrib and alternator pulley. How much play should there be in the waterpump bearing? I can feel a click when I move it's pulley, but can't actually see it moving, so it must be somewhere in the 1/4mm range.

There is also a teeny bit of play in the two idlers, but not the tensioner. I'm going to try tightening them, since some people have mentioned they come lose. But if that doesn't help should I replace them?

Anything else I should check while the belt is off?

Edit: Is it safe to run the engine for a couple minutes with no belt so I can listen for any other problems? It would be a cold start.

-james

play in bearings......
 

bearings have clearance, but generally play is bad.

you need to use a stethoscope to check for bearing noise in the waterpump...if you think you have play you will probably also have noise... any leakage ?

my wrenching experience was gained on vw's so i could be off but i'd be making plans for a waterpump replacement.

Are you talking in & out play or side to side?? My WP pulley& shaft fell off at 85k miles with no prior warning. The WP shaft bearings are very small high quality needle bearings so I would think any side to side play would be bad & I would much rather change the WP when I want to not when I have too

The play is when grabbing the pulley and pushing it from side to side. I don't know if it's ever been replaced, it doesn't look newer than the rest of the engine.

The car is still disassembled and it's raining so I won't be driving it... I guess I'll put in a new one, and probably do the 160F thermostat at the same time.

I'm going to need to start the car to drive it onto ramps. That's safe to do without the polyrib belt right?

-james

Yeah you can drive it til the engine gets to about 220 degrees or the battery gets low. engine heat will get to high first thou

So it seems some play in the bearings is probably acceptable - date on the "old" pump is '07. I'm learning the hard way why maintenance records are important...

The pump came out fairly easy, but the hoses not so much, I ended up cutting them - so I'm gonna have to order some more. $60 (out of stock) at the local stealer, hopefully sunset will be half that.

At least it gave me an excuse to put in the upgraded thermostat.

-james

Water pump bearings are used primarily in automotive water pumps and basically consisted of standard double row bearings.Mainly exists two types design
1.Ball-ball with two rows of balls
2.Ball-roller with one row balls,one row roller.

Hi,
I have seen the cam synchronizer go bad and thought it was a pulley problem. it sounded like the noise was right there at the belt. this was also a 2000 windstar w/3.8. good luck.

Car is all back together now. The idle sounds better with the new alt. pulley and waterpump. And with the new t-stat, as long as the car is doing 40+, the temp gauge sits right on the 180 tick mark.

-james