I took my 85 DL radiator out along with the water pump last weekend and tonight all I had to do was put the new water pump in along with the fan and radiator and be done with it. I even went to Sears and bought a torque wrench so I could torque the pump bolt to the proper tension.

But one of the water pump bolts would not go into it's hole in the block so for some reason I start to take off the nut and washer on the stud near the timing belt cavern and the washer falls in. I try to rig up a magnet on a stick but soon the magnet falls in. I then run down to Sears for a breaker bar to take the crank pulley off but while I'm there I learn they have a flexy magnet thingy so I buy it for $6. It works great and reetrieves the other magnet and pump washer and I'm back in business. Then the torque wrench, set at 16 foot pounds, doesn't seem to click even when I torque a bolt hard for practice. I try one of the water pump bolts and still nothing. At that point I decide to tighten them with my socket wrench and forget the torque wrench. I pry the pump up gently and tighten all bolts snug.

Then I put everything back together, put in the coolant and start the engine. Oh no, the pump is leaking like a sieve. Evidently, out of fear of overtightening the pump bolts/nuts, I don't tighten them enough. No way to tighten them with the fan etc. in the way so I drain the coolant and start again only I don't have to take out the radiator. I apply more force to the pump screws and put everything back together. I will have to wait until tomorrow to get more antifreeze as I didn't want to put dirty coolant back in. I hope I don't have leaks again but if I do I'll go back to the pump and completely remove it if I have to. It's frustrating because I did this 10 years ago to my 1982 240 and it went well.

ON the good side, I found the magnet device and I didn't have to buy the breaker bar. I hope I can find a more user friendly torque wrench as the one I bought (3/8 10-75 foot/pounds range) didn't seem to be very reliable.