I got the water pump housing off, with water pump still attached because it was stuck on there. The good news is I did not have to disturb the thermostat housing again; I just pushed the AC compressor off to the side and propped it up with wood chunks. i did find the return hose had no clip on it, and also two bolts are just plain missing off the pump housing. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I think part of the reason it started leaking is, one of the bolts I removed to take the AC bracket off also holds the pump housing in place. Nonetheless putting a new gasket in ... the old one tore as I took it off.
But .. now the problem is the water pump stuck in the housing. I tried sticking it in a vice and hitting it with a rubber mallet but no luck at all. Advice? Anything I can soak it in? I have Aerokroil but I don't think it's rust holding it in so much as the old gasket + RTV .. or maybe the last owner JB Welded it on, I wouldn't be surprised! Once the housing bolts come in I can reinstall the housing, THEN try to knock off the pump, I guess ...

I don't have a good answer. That happened to me once and I never got them unstuck. You might try some heat on the housing since it is alloy and the pump is steel.

Ah, I forgot about good old-fashioned heat. Thanks. :o

It's free! Heat on the housing worked. Thanks for the tip. It was still pretty stubborn, took a lot of tapping around the housing to get it loose ... hopefully I didn't ding it up too much. With all the grease on it I didn't think there'd be rust, but there was just enough to hold it in there. Will clean it and reassemble tomorrow. Unfortunately I'm still waiting for the two missing bolts to arrive at the dealer ... they had to come all the way from Germany ... guess they aren't in very high demand.

Finally got all of this back together, let it sit for a few days, then tested it today. I don't want to celebrate too soon, but an initial quick test held pressure and I couldn't see any leaks! I'll try again tomorrow to make sure before I put the fan and belts back on and try to start the car. Crossing my fingers.:cool:

Big step forward ... actually managed to get it started today (I was gone all week), which took a new battery and a few glow cycles. It wasn't too thrilled about starting but once it did, ran fine. It left a couple coolant spots on the driveway at first, but I think (hope) they may have been coolant sitting on the engine or in another crevice from the previous mess I made. I didn't see anything running from the areas I repaired. I did also notice a fizzy/hissy sound coming from the t-stat area after I shut it off, but I hadn't had time to let it reach operating temp and properly burp it. So perhaps just air bubble working its way out the tstat.
So, it's still not quite road-worthy since it's leaking fuel A LOT out of the front of the IP, and it's shaking really bad, but I'm very excited to move on from one problem to new ones.:o Thanks for the help, as always.

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