I have a 1987 2.5L with a leaking water pump. I'm looking for any "secrets" to hasten the replacement. I purchased a replacement at Autozone and all you get is the hub/impeller assembly that bolts on to the pump body. The repair manuals all say to remove the lower water hose & remove the entire pump assembly from the block. Is this step really required, or can I simply remove the outside hub/impeller cover & replace it with removing the entire pump assembly? My car is equipped with A/C and it looks like there is a bracket that supports the A/C compressor that blocks access to the 2 lower pump cover bolts. To remove the entire pump assembly, or not, that is the question. Either way, I'll have to change over the serpentine pulley. Will I end up requiring a "special" tool to do this? All of the on-line Fiero service guides do a good job of describing the R&R of the 6 cylinder 2.8L water pump, but I found nothing on the 4 cylinder. I'm sure lots of you have valuable experience with changing out these pumps.
TIA

You can just take of the pump part. It's awkward but doable. The pulley has to be done with the proper puller and press tool or you can damage the pump. I think autozone has the pulley tools in their loaner stuff. If you take both pumps back to the store some places will change it for you free or for a small fee. Look at how the pulley is installed now... it has to be on the same way on the new pump or you'll eat belts from having the pulleys out of line.

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The only thing George Orwell got wrong was the year...

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top of every forum page...)

Definitely borrow the pulley puller from Autozone, it doesn't cost anything and you WILL destroy the pulley if you try using some other type of puller. Don't ask me how I know...

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84 Sport Coupe
87 GT 5 Spd

Thanks for the replies. You guys are sure correct about having the correct pulley puller! Here's an Update:
I crawled under the car this afternoon for a good look at the water pump, A/C compressor & brackets. I decided to pull the 4 water pump body bolts, plus the 1 A/C bracket bolt & spacer that bolts to the water pump body casting. The pump then came out easily. I purchased a pulley puller from Autozone today to remove the pulley. I had to heat up the pulley hub to get it off from the shaft, even with the puller. I cleaned up the pulley bore, added a touch of anti-seize compound & pressed the pulley on to the new pump shaft. I then bolted the new cover assembly w/gasket to the pump body. Since it is all of 43 degrees up here today, I have decided to wait for a warmer day to complete the task.
boomer