That spring mounting point will get no points from me
Improvised workshop (at least kind of)
Having a car that isn't able to drive kind of defeats the point of having a car. As some may know, I drive and maintain a 1985 BMW E28 525e. Overall, it is really reliable, but like every car, it has wear parts that will break at some point. In this current case, it was the bearings and sealings of the water pump that wear out. Yesterday, I finally had the time to fix that. Since the defect happened while driving back from home to my dormitory, I had to repair the car on the parking deck of the dormitory. The good point of this old car is that you can do most repairs without the need of special tools. Unfortunately, "most repairs" didn't include the water pump...
BMW M20B27 engine with half dismantled engine front
It was actually my first time that I've dismantled the engine front that much. Removing the necessary parts for reaching the water pump was pretty straightforward. One little tip: The screws of the water pump pulley can be loosen a lot easier when the v-belt is still attached. But then, for some strange reason, which I'll probably never understand, someone thought it would be a good idea to mount the spring of the timing belt tensioning roller against the casing of the water pump (see picture above). BMW workshops have some strange special tool for fixating that spring, which I don't have, so this was the point where I had to improvise. My first try was to fixate the spring with self-locking pliers but that didn't work out. This may be an option with a small pliers version, but my regular sized one was too large for getting any descent grip. So, I moved this challenge to a later point and removed the screws which fixated the water pump. To my surprise, nothing happend. The old sealing of the pump held the pump at its place. So I fixated the spring with a long-nosed pliers, removed the pump and then the spring. I then cleaned the mounting area of the water pump and removed the remainings of the sealing with a scraper.
BMW M20B27 engine with removed water pump
Putting in the spring together with the new water pump and a new sealing was a lot trickier. After around 40 minutes of trying, I can honestly say that it isn't possible to do this step alone. Additionally, the cable of the oil pressure switch tends to get in the way. So, how to improvise that part? First, I removed the cable clip of that cable and got both out of the way. Then I put the spring back in its place and let a friend fixate it with a long-nosed pliers. I then used some water to made the new water pump sealing wet and put it in the water pump. The water is able to hold the sealing for around one minute, so I then put the water pump in its place while making sure that the end of the spring was facing into the direction of its mounting point. After putting in the three screws that holds the water pump, my friend could finally loosen the spring. Mission successful, water pump back in its place. Putting the rest back together was - again - pretty straightforward. On the way, I also replaced the ignition rotor, the v-belts and the adjusting bar of the alternator (which teeth were badly damaged - dunno if it was damaged by the workshop that changed the timing belt last year or if the damage was there even longer). After around six hours, I finally had everything back together. That much for my Saturday. I think the time spent was okay, regarding I had to work on a parking deck, had to improvise with that stupid spring and did this repair for the first time.
