Squeaks gets a cooling system refresh…..

Damn Jeeps, lol. My last bit of winter maintenance was to flush the cooling system and get fresh fluid installed. I was still debating whether I should go in and replace the 140k mile waterpump, but hadn’t made up my mind. When we got back from South Dakota, I noticed a drip under the jeep. Crap. Decided to do the entire cooling system with the exception of the radiator as that has to come out the front of the car. Upper and lower radiator hoses, waterpump, thermostat, radiator cap, and coolant.

Had I looked at it a little closer, I would have discovered it was the thermostat housing leaking and not the waterpump. But by then I had all the parts, and figured it should probably be refreshed since we plan on keeping Squeaks awhile (and since it has gotten cold out, she lives up to her name)

Drained the coolant out. Such a nice system….hook up a hose to the drain spout, spin it open, coolant comes out nice and controlled 🙂

Old thermostat gasket that was leaking.

Fan and clutch removed and hanging out of the way.

New waterpump ready to go in.

To get the waterpump out easily, I pulled the alternator out of the way so it would come out the top. With the fan plugging the bottom side, there wasn’t any room to go down. I was too lazy to pull the shroud.

Next I sucked the junk out of the coolant reservoir.

And pulled it out to clean it. A little brake cleaner sloshed around and it was looking a lot better.

When I pulled the belt off, I spun the 2 idler pulleys and they were definitely in need of replacement. The ribbed pulley was no problem to replace. The metal pulley on the other hand was a bear to find. I figured I could just replace the 6203LUA bearing out of the middle since I have the press, but that specific closed bearing was a bit hard to find. The first pulley autozone gave me was completely wrong. Not only was it plastic, but the bearing was seated in so far that the bolt and washer pinched it down and it wouldn’t turn. So back to autozone I went. Props to them, 2 employees spent about a half hour going through pulley boxes until we found the one I needed. It was the exact pulley, but part number was not listed in their system for this application. Go figure. Anyway, everything went back together like a charm, and we are up and running again.

New Pulley. The only other issue I had was the coolant cap from worldpac was an 18lber and it needs a 21lber. It is nice to have owned and maintained the vehicle since new, so I know nobody else’s hands have been in there buy mine, lol.

4.7Lgrand cherokeeIdler PulleyJeepLaredoTensionerwaterpump