Danged Durango

b-body-bob

b-body-bob

Well-known member
Got a call from the wife, she was broke down beside the highway, no charging, temps at max, hard to steer. Shot out to the parts store and picked up a new serpentine belt, got there, put it on, it came right off. Did it again, double checked installation, same thing.

Finally noticed that what I thought was overflow on the ground was coming out of the water pump. Grabbed the fan, wiggled, the shaft is broken. So much for not tomorrow being a day off work. :(

If you have any enemies, I highly recommend you urge them to buy a 99 Durango. I know I will.
 
How many miles on it Bob? Might be time to trade it in. [smilie=e:
Z's 2000 still has the stallout cold issue,no one seems to know why. [smilie=e:
 
Marc - It's got a 318, with 75,000 miles. Yep, I'm glad it didn't eat the radiator.

Beeper - I hate to trade it in - I'm tired of taking it up the pooper from car dealers. :(

Our cold stall problem went away on it's own. It'll be back, next time we're hours from home with no tools and dead cell phone batteries.
 
Hep me, puhleese

Need some help here - anyone ever replaced a water pump on a 318 Magnum?

1- How do you drain the damn radiator on a Durango/Dakota? There/s a plastic plug that looks like it should be the petcock. I turned it and it dripped, turned it more and it stopped. I'm afraid of breaking it. If I can't get an answer, guess I will just pull the lower hose off to drain it.

2- How does the fan/clutch come off? There's a huge nut at the front of the pulley, but it turns with the pump shaft. The only other bolts up there hold the fan to the clutch, and that doesn't help with getting the fan/clutch off the pump.

This is gonna be one long assed day, I can see it coming already.
 
A final FYI, I hope hope hope ---

To get the fan off, I used one of these
SPA_1.jpg


The pulley has 4 holes in it, I popped that pin spanner into two of them, held it, and turned the fan nut with a big crescent wrench. The nut is right hand thread.

Yeah, that spanner is a bicycle tool. I knew those years of biking and fixing bikes would pay off. :)

And beeper, if you get an e-mail saying you have a PM, but there isn't one, that was me. I sent one asking for you to look up in a Motor manual how to get that fan unbolted. I deleted it so you wouldn't go searching for no reason . [smilie=e:
 
We have a special tool set for those friggin fans. One of Fords stupid ideas that Chrysler unfortunetly picked up on. [smilie=e:
Glad you got it apart. [smilie=::
 
I had a heck of a time with the plastic drain on a lebaron last winter,it ended up taking 3 days to switch thermostats because the plastic POS broke and we tried everything to seal it back up and ended up pulling another radiator from a K- car after shoveling snow to get to it in the dark-just pull the lower hose.Once you get the fan hub off its pretty much the same as any other LA mill except that you might have to pull the big upper bracket off to get the bypass hose loose and put in a new one while you are there.
 
Marc,

Yeah, I took that upper bracket off, alternator and A/C. It's just a PITA, not hard work, just frustrating.
 
Kewl-its interesting that of all the 4.7s out there Ive yet to hear of one of them lunching the w-pump yet anyways. [smilie=e:
 
It was the same story with the sludge problem I had last year .. no 4.7's acting up. Pepsi break over for me, back to work. :)

BTW, if there's anything that can survive a nuclear blast, it's the stuff they sealed that waterpump gasket with - I like to never got that off there.
 
Durango is fixed - see thread titled "sucks to be me" to follow the never ending crap hole that is my life in this hobby. :)
 
Ahhh shoot, not havin any fun are ya, sooner or later every part will be new on the X then ya should be ok! [smilie=e: Rich.
 
Beeper, if I ever hit the lottery and get to open a shop, I'm gonna hire me a designated gasket scraper. I hate that job more than anything.

Rusty, most every part on the GTX is new already, that's what gets me about it. I had the clutch and all out when I swapped the motor, nothing was wrong, and it worked a treat until today. I think the pivot broke.

I just keep looking at that Dart and Duster and thinking that's where I should be spending money.
 
Thats easy to do-spending money on A-bodies,it always seemed to me that the Bs take more thrashin before they quit. [smilie=e:
 
B's take more thrashing? Not in my case. :)

The Dart's a whole lot less used and abused - it belonged to an older lady, from the time it was born, until the time she died. Maybe it's just a grass is greener thing - also think it'd be easier to sell the GTX than the Dart. :)
 
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