Would messing with the fan clutch destroy a seal / gasket on the water pump?

Seal

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I'm a bit lost on this one and need to spring board off you guys...

A buddy and I installed a 1" motor mount lift on the 05 LJ in preparation for installation of the Savvy skid system and forgot to unbolt the fan shroud 🤦‍♂️. That little mistake caused the radiator to leak out of the bottom seal (without a doubt).

So we just replaced the radiator. No problem there. Also planned on replacing the water pump but after messing with the fan clutch without success we decided to call it a day and worry about that later since it wasn't the issue anyway. Put the new radiator in, started driving, then all of the sudden the Jeep's overheating and coolant is POURING out from under the engine.

Thought at first that perhaps we did loosen the fan clutch but the leak is behind the pulley, not the fan clutch. All signs point to the water pump, but how did it ALL THE SUDDEN become the issue? And this bad?

Would messing with the fan clutch destroy a seal/gasket on the water pump assembly?

Can't seem to win with this Jeep.

 
Messing with the fan clutch shouldn't have caused any seal or gasket to go bad, but it could have. What it would seem has happened is that maybe in the process of doing that, you were moving the water pump pulley around with enough force that it caused the bearings / seal to fail enough for it to spring a coolant leak.

With a higher mileage Jeep and an older water pump, it stands to reason that this is possible. Either way, the area you are describing the coolant coming from is definitely indicative of a bad water pump.
 
The fan clutch is attached to the water pump, not only could you have damaged a seal or gasket you could have broken the water pump itself or the bolts attaching it to the block.

I don't really understand what you mean by causing the radiator to leak out the bottom, did the fan push into the radiator? If you hung the engine on the fan that could also bust the water pump pretty easily.
 
I don't really understand what you mean by causing the radiator to leak out the bottom, did the fan push into the radiator? If you hung the engine on the fan that could also bust the water pump pretty easily.

The fan was pushed into the shroud pretty good which I believe stressed the radiator which caused the initial leak. We had everything jacked up though on blocks, definitely didn't hang the engine by the fan.
 
Make sure you smack the fan clutch the correct direction when you take it off, you want to spin it the direction the fan normally rotates or "overspin" the fan. Many sharp hits like an impact wrench has worked for me. Good luck, on the bright side water pumps are cheaper than radiators.
 
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and the water pump



both leaks.

I hope to see pictures of the whole Jeep some time soon.

Not the case. I drove the Jeep for a solid week (maybe more) before figuring out the radiator was leaking. It was a slow steady drip that I just happened to notice when walking up to the Jeep. No overheating at this point.

It wasn't until we replaced the radiator that the Jeep started pouring coolant from the water pump and overheating, and I couldn't even drive it for more than a few minutes; this is the source of my confusion...that changing the radiator and trying to take off the fan could cause such a significantly worse leak.

I'll work on the pics 🤘. Going to work on it tomorrow.
 
I might be correct.
The stress on the radiator incident could have added stress to the water pump seal and caused the second leak which didn't really wasn't enough to notice until the first leak was repaired. Pressure always finds the easiest way out first.

You might be correct.
You added stress to the water pump seal while trying to take off the fan.

(I'd put you being correct first but your correctness happened after my correctness.)

Either way might have caused it but maybe we are both correct.
The first stress made the water pump seal's life a lot shorter and the second stress finished it off.

Good luck on it tomorrow.
 
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A couple questions:
- Did you replace the radiator with a Mopar OEM radiator? The non-Mopar replacements generally do not cool as efficiently as the OEM units.

- Did you replace the radiator cap? It's possible the cap is not releasing pressure as it should and the water pump seal was the weak link and served as a pressure relief valve.
 
A couple questions:
- Did you replace the radiator with a Mopar OEM radiator? The non-Mopar replacements generally do not cool as efficiently as the OEM units.

- Did you replace the radiator cap? It's possible the cap is not releasing pressure as it should and the water pump seal was the weak link and served as a pressure relief valve.

The new radiator is a Mopar and I bought a new cap from Stant to go with it.

Hopefully I can get the Mopar water pump assembly on today and everything is fixed, but so far it's been "fix one issue just to cause another one" type of month.
 
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Since you are going for it - I suggest replacing all the cooling parts, such as thermostat and heater hoses too.... i remember having a helluva time getting the fan off (I then replaced that as well)....
 
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Did you bleed out the air from the engine? If you don’t, it will overheat. Which is just another problem to deal with.
 
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New water pump and thermostat are in and she finally seems to be leak free for now 😅. Thanks, everyone...your responses affirmed what I "knew" and kept me from going down any rabbit holes.