The first person who solves this mystery gets my bottle of Tums. Because*I know some where down the line*I will have to return the favor and the tablets will have to do until I can resolve your issue. Ok here we go.
I have a very serious situation with my water pump RIGHT NOW! I'll spare you some steps for the sake of time .radiator out...fan off.. loosened the 2 belts ..pulleys off and old water pumps off (not *soooo fast.) This is where it gets interesting. I was doing this job at 3am and I had one more screw to undo. That screw was the one at the very bottom. I don't know what came over me but*I thought to myself maybe if I turn the engine one turn ( like you do when you adjust your valves)*that will get that screw to come to the top. DUH... what was I thinking.
First the pulley was not on the*water pump nor were the belts. Second of all, the*WHOLE*water pump doesn't turn (BOY was it getting late for me.) At any rate, I got the screw out and replaced the aftermarket (M183 water pump) with a M-B water pump.
Everything was going A O K. All I had to do now is put the pulley back on....Then NO GOOD started to happen. When I took the pulley off the first time I just pulled it straight*off. When I went to*place *it back on, I had to tilt it slightly to put it on the hub. Then that's when I noticed the PULLEY HAD DROPPED AND HAD MOVED FURTHER BACK TOWARDS THE BLOCK.
There was no way I could put the two belts back on, let alone put the fan on. I called the M-B parts dept. they swear they sent the right part for the car. However, they did some digging and they did tell me the previous owners of this car had switched the engine. **Engine in car now; 61795212015127.*Engine taken out: 61795212002110.
M-B parts dept. states this has nothing to do with the problem either.... THIS IS GETTING BAD. No body can tell me what went wrong; how to fix this easy routine water pump job; its approaching winter (car is outside; no way to get it into the garage.)
So Finally this is were it gets UGLY: The next day I go back outside and place a couple of bolts into the old water pump to mount it and* NOW the pulley still *doesn't fit correctly* ^^^^#$#%$$%$.* WHAT? If you don't' believe me see for yourself. And those Tums are still waiting for anybody who can solve this mystery.
Oh. one more thing.* After looking at the car's*water pump area at least 123 times, I saw that the*water pump housing* had gouges inside of it. But the old water pump itself*did not show*any signs of metal shaving or rubbing metal against metal.*
So now I need anyone - everyone -to put your heads together and come up with a solution to my water pump problem...THANK You