84 300TD Coolant Leak - Water Pump?

[b2948kevin]

A few days ago, I noticed my temp guage bouncing around in the warmer areas so I pulled over and put about a gallon of fluid in. I thought this was strange at the time because I am always very current on my fluids and don't put a lot of miles on the car (couple thousand in the last 2 years). A day later I had a recurrence of the same situation and put another gallon in. Yesterday my wife drove the car and came home to tell me that the temperature pegged out about a half mile from home. Thankfully, she was close because she probably would have just kept driving. I asked specifics and she said it was only pegged for a very short time and that she coasted as soon as she saw it and it cooled back down a bit.

When I went out to inspect, I found a decent amount of coolant leaking onto the pavement. This is abnormal because my car has never leaked any fluid at all (this one, anyway). strangely, with 2+ gallons of fluid missing, this is the only time I saw anythign at all leaking.

I popped the hood expecting for a hose to be blown or something like that, but the leak seemed to be coming from the front of the engine behind the fan somewhere. I could hear it dripping, but couldn't pin point where it was coming from. Is there a smoking gun here? From what I have read, it's most likely the seals on the water pump which would require a water pump replacement. Is there anything else in that area that could be leaking? BTW, I checked the Thermostat housing and it's not coming from that. The fluid is leaking down from somewhere in the middle front of the engine, down onto the pulleys and then to the ground.

Any suggestions? Also, I searched but didn't find any water pump replacement pictorials. Anybody know where I might find something like this?